Early Tuesday evening, a magnitude 7.3 earthquake hit Venezuela near Caracas.
According to NBC News, there have not been any “immediate reports of casualties or significant damage.”
The Trinidad Express, a Carribean newspaper, reports that power lines were knocked over, windows were broken and items fell from shelves, but there was little major damage due to the depth at which the earthquake occurred. The US Geological Survey (USGS) is saying that this earthquake was at an “intermediate depth,” meaning its focal depth was “between 70 and 300 km.”
The earthquake is said to have been cause by an oblique reverse fault in the Caribbean Sea.
The USGS is saying that at the location of the earthquake “the South America plate moves westward with respect to the Caribbean plate at a rate of approximately 20 mm/yr.”
According to the USGS intensity map, the earthquake could be felt as far west as Medellín and Bogota, Columbia and as far south as Boa Vista, Brazil.
NBC News reports, the earthquake was register by the USGS at 5:31 p.m. EST. The quake was detected at about 12½ miles north-northwest of Yaguaraparo on the northeast tip of Venezuela near the Port of Spain.
The USGS reports that this earthquake was the largest quake on record within 150 miles of land in the 20th and 21st centuries.
As a 7.3 magnitude earthquake there was potential for large and extensive damages, but as of now the damages are being considered light and no death have been recorded. The USGS believes that the depth of the epicenter could be why the quake did not cause as much surface damage. The USGS reports that the earthquake was about 53 miles deep, which possibly alleviated surface shaking.
Photo courtesy: Unsplash/Andrés Gerlotti
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