Earthquake in Venezuela Felt Across Borders, Including Colombian Coast
A magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck western Venezuela on Wednesday night,with tremors felt as far as Caracas. This followed earlier seismic activity, including a magnitude 5.4 earthquake reported hours prior by venezuelan authorities, according to the Colombian geological service via social network X and reported by the Efe agency.
The Colombian geological service indicated the larger quake was a superficial depth event, with its epicenter located in the town of Mene Grande, in the Zulia state, which borders Colombia. The agency recorded over a dozen movements of varying magnitudes in western Venezuela.
Venezuela’s Foundation for Seismological Research (Funvisis) also registered the magnitude 6 earthquake, pinpointing the epicenter 45 kilometers east of Bachaquero in Zulia. They had previously reported the magnitude 5.4 quake that impacted the same region. Funvisis detailed that the earlier tremor, occurring at 18:21 local time (22:21 GMT), had an epicenter 40 kilometers northeast of CEIBA, a town in Trujillo state, and 40 kilometers southeast of Bachaquero, at a depth of 26.5 kilometers.
Reports from X users indicated the earthquake was felt in several Venezuelan states beyond Zulia,including Táchira,Lara,Mérida,Barinas,trujillo,Aragua,and the capital,Caracas. The Venezuelan Ministry of Interior stated that, as of the initial reports, no major structural damage had been recorded.
Though, Zulia Governor Luis Caldera informed Efe that regional authorities were assessing potential damage to infrastructure, including hospitals, churches, and bridges, following the magnitude 5.4 earthquake. “We are evaluating the structural damage that until now have been reported, among them, the Luis Razetti hospital, in the town of Pueblo Nuevo, in (the municipality) Baralt, the San Pedro bridge, also in that municipality,” Caldera stated outside the Santa Barbara Church in Maracaibo, which sustained damage to its tower.
Caldera also reported damage to the General Hospital of the South in Maracaibo, as well as disruptions to traffic lights and power outages in sectors of the jesús Enrique Lossada municipality. State Security Bodies, Civil Protection, and engineers and technicians from various municipalities in Zulia are scheduled to evaluate further potential damage in the coming hours.
Notably, the tremor was also felt in parts of Colombia, notably along the Caribbean coast in cities like barranquilla and Cartagena, and in Medellín, located in the northwest of the country.The Colombian geological Service measured the earthquake’s magnitude at 6.1,while the United States Geological Service (USGS) reported a magnitude of 6.2,also noting its superficial depth and epicenter in Mene Grande,Zulia. A replica of magnitude 4.3 was recorded twelve minutes later.
