Samaritan's Purse Deploys Team to Venezuela After 7.5 Quake Kills 180

Q: After a rare 'doublet' earthquake, are Venezuelans facing an even stronger tremor in the coming days?

No one can predict earthquakes, but the current scientific outlook suggests Venezuelans are more likely to face strong aftershocks than an even bigger quake. The U.S. Geological Survey says aftershocks are virtually certain after Wednesday’s rare doublet, in which a magnitude 7.2 quake was followed about 40 seconds later by a magnitude 7.5 mainshock. Its latest forecast gives a 99% chance of at least one magnitude 4 aftershock in the next week and about a 24% chance of a magnitude 6 or larger aftershock. The chance of something stronger than the 7.5 mainshock is much lower. USGS estimates only about a 2% chance that the 7.5 event was a foreshock to an even larger earthquake in the coming week. That means the risk is not zero, but it is small. What makes the danger immediate is not only the possibility of another major tremor, but the high likelihood of repeated aftershocks hitting damaged buildings, unstable slopes and weakened infrastructure. In Caracas, La Guaira and other hard-hit areas, even a smaller aftershock could cause additional collapses, injuries and disruption. So the practical answer is that a stronger quake is possible but unlikely. The more pressing threat in the coming days is a continuing sequence of aftershocks, some of them potentially strong, while rescue teams and aid groups such as Samaritan’s Purse move into a highly unstable disaster zone.

3 articles · Updated · Samaritan's Purse · Jun 25

Samaritan’s Purse is sending a Disaster Assistance Response Team to Venezuela and preparing to airlift an emergency field hospital plus shelter tarps, solar lights, blankets and water filters.
Two earthquakes above magnitude 7.0 struck within a minute on June 24, with the second measuring 7.5 — the strongest to hit Venezuela in more than a century — and aftershocks still continuing.
More than 180 deaths have been confirmed, but estimates have climbed into the thousands as reports from some areas remain unavailable and buildings collapsed in Caracas.
Staff from the charity’s Colombia office are joining the response, with some flying in the next day and more arriving over several days as rescue and recovery operations continue around Caracas and La Guaira.