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With Venezuela’s devastating doublet pushing the global count to nine earthquakes over magnitude 7 in just six months, there is an unusually high spike in major tectonic activity that far outpaces historical baselines for the first half of the year

A relentless wave of high-intensity global seismicity escalated dramatically over the last 24 hours as back-to-back major earthquakes struck opposite sides of the Pacific Ring of Fire.

The crisis deepened in northwestern Venezuela's Yaracuy state, where an extraordinary and rare seismic doublet tore through the Bocono–Moron–El Pilar fault system. A powerful magnitude 7.2 foreshock was followed just 40 seconds later by a massive magnitude 7.5 mainshock at a shallow depth of 10.0 km, registering a violent Modified Mercalli Intensity (MMI) of IX.

The MMI scale—which ranges from I (not felt) to XII (total destruction)—differs from earthquake magnitude, as it measures the severity of shaking and structural damage at a specific location rather than the total energy release. The MMI of IX (9) is classified as "ruinous". It describes widespread panic and major structural devastation.

The twin South American disasters have caused severe structural devastation, collapsing buildings in the capital city of Caracas, destroying homes in the Altamira neighbourhood and forcing the temporary closure of the Simon Bolívar International Airport due to terminal damage.