Wednesday evening’s 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude earthquakes were among the strongest to strike Venezuela in more than a century and could be felt throughout the region. Buildings were evacuated in places as far away as Brazil’s Amazon, about 1,700 kilometers (1,050 miles) from Venezuela’s capital, Caracas.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the first earthquake was west of the community of Morón, located along the country’s Caribbean coast, about 104 miles west of Caracas. The quake had a depth of 8 miles.
The USGS reported an even larger 7.5-magnitude earthquake just a minute later. The second quake had a depth of 10 kilometers and its epicenter was 10 miles southwest of Morón.
