Powerful earthquakes strike Venezuela, Japan

Strong earthquakes struck Venezuela and Japan less than a day apart, with a magnitude 7.1 tremor in Venezuela damaging buildings, cutting power and prompting tsunami warnings, while a magnitude 6.9 quake off Japan’s northeastern coast halted some train services but caused no major damage or tsunami concerns.

The strong earthquake shook north-central Venezuela on Wednesday afternoon, June 24, west of the capital Caracas, with residents in neighboring Colombia also reporting feeling tremors.

The earthquake registered at a magnitude 7.1 in Venezuela, about an hour west of Valencia at a depth of 13 km, according to the US Geological Survey.

Another earthquake, a magnitude 6.9, struck the east coast of Japan’s northeastern Tohoku region, the Japan Meteorological Agency said on Thursday, June 25. No tsunami warning was issued after the earthquake.

The epicenter of the quake was off the coast of Iwate prefecture, at the depth of about 50 km, and no damage from tsunami is feared except for slight sea level changes, the agency said.

Holiday in Venezuela

Many Venezuelans were at home when the magnitude 7.1 quake hit, celebrating a public holiday commemorating an 1821 military victory which secured Venezuela’s independence from Spain.

Residents in Caracas rushed to evacuate as the quake shook buildings.

Maria Romero, an 80-year-old pensioner on the south side of Caracas, said that the police helped her evacuate her building. “This earthquake was horrible, even worse than the one in 1967,” she added.

According to videos from Reuters witnesses, fire trucks were on the streets in Caracas, and the facades of some buildings had suffered significant damage.

Many residents in Caracas lost power or internet service right after the quake.

One witness said that cracks had formed up the side of their apartment and glass in the entryway had shattered. Power went down shortly after, the witness added.

“Several walls in my building broke open or cracks formed,” a witness in Valencia, to the west of Caracas, told Reuters. “As soon as it stopped (shaking) my husband and I evacuated.”

Impossible to remain standing

Meanwhile, the earthquake at the east coast of Japan’s northeastern Tohoku region hit Aomori prefecture with an intensity of 6-plus, a situation where typically “it is impossible to remain standing or to move without crawling,” on the Japanese scale of 0-7, it said.

East Japan Railway said it has halted some trains, including Tohoku Shinkansen high-speed rail services, after the quake.

Tohoku Electric Power said no irregularities were found at its Onagawa and idled Higashidori nuclear power plants following the earthquake.

Earthquakes are common in Japan, one of the world’s most seismically active areas. Japan accounts for about one-fifth of the world’s earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater. – Rappler.com