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By Shane Croucher and John Feng
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A series of large earthquakes struck northwestern Venezuela on Wednesday and Thursday, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said. The USGS had a yellow warning for potential fatalities and economic losses from the strongest of the quakes. There were no immediate reports of casualties or major damage.
They rocked Venezuela's Zulia State in the area of the Maracaibo Basin, which is key to the socialist South American country's vast oil wealth. Venezuela has experienced extremely high inflation and a severe economic crisis in recent years due to the Maduro government's hard-left policies and international sanctions against the country.
The first 6.2 magnitude quake struck at around 6:21 p.m. local time on Wednesday, around 15 miles east-northeast of Mene Grande, USGS said. Three more sizeable aftershocks followed in the same region.
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A 4.9 magnitude earthquake occurred at around 10:42 p.m. The largest quake of 6.3 in magnitude struck at 11:51 p.m. On Thursday, another 5.8 magnitude quake struck at 2:55 a.m. They all recorded depths ranging from 4.8 miles to 8.7 miles.
People felt the earthquake in several states, and in neighboring Colombia. Many evacuated residential and office buildings in areas near the border. Videos shared across social media sites purported to show the quakes violently shaking stores and homes as people rushed for cover.
State-owned television did not interrupt its programming, including a science-focused segment led by President Nicolás Maduro, during or after the evening earthquake.
An hour afterward, Communications Minister Freddy Ñáñez announced on the Telegram app that the state’s Venezuelan Foundation for Technological Research had reported two earthquakes with magnitudes of 3.9 and 5.4, but he did not address the quake noted by the USGS. He said the weaker of the two happened in the Zulia state; the other happened in the Barinas state.
Mene Grande is on the eastern coast of Lake Maracaibo, an important area for the Venezuelan oil industry.
Venezuela has the world’s largest proven oil reserves.
USGS
In August 2018, a 7.3 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of northeastern Venezuela, around 25 miles from Carúpano. There were no deaths or major damage reported, but it was one of the largest recorded earthquakes to hit Venezuela in more than a century.
A severe 6.9 magnitude earthquake hit Cariaco in northeastern Venezuela in July 1997, killing dozens and injuring hundreds more as buildings collapsed, and damaging swathes of infrastructure.
Update 9/25/25, 5:46 a.m. ET: This article was updated with more information.
This article includes reporting by The Associated Press.
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