Two powerful earthquakes struck Venezuela on Wednesday, resulting in hundreds of deaths and injuries, and adding the nation to a list of Latin American countries that have experienced devastating seismic events in the past century.
The seismic activity in Venezuela occurred on the heels of back-to-back tremors that have shaken the country. While the full extent of the damage and casualties is still being assessed, these events serve as a somber reminder of the region's vulnerability to earthquakes.
Latin America has a long and often tragic history of significant earthquakes. In 1970, a magnitude 7.9 earthquake in northern Peru caused more than 66,000 fatalities. A magnitude 7.5 earthquake in western Guatemala in 1976 resulted in over 22,700 deaths. Chile has also been particularly affected, experiencing a magnitude 9.5 earthquake in 1960, the largest ever recorded, which killed over 1,655 people and displaced 2 million. Another major quake in Chile in 1939, measuring 8.3, claimed approximately 28,000 lives.
More recently, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake in Ecuador in April 2016 flattened coastal towns and killed more than 650 people. In September 2017, Mexico was hit by two powerful earthquakes within a week, an 8.1 and a 7.1, which devastated southern and central parts of the country, including Mexico City, and resulted in nearly 500 deaths. El Salvador experienced a series of seismic events in January and February 2001, including a magnitude 7.7 earthquake, that, along with subsequent landslides, killed 1,200 people or more.
Other notable earthquakes in the region include a magnitude 8.8 tremor in Chile in 2010 that killed 523 people, a magnitude 8.0 quake in Peru in 2007 that claimed over 500 lives, and a magnitude 6.0 earthquake in western Colombia in 1999 that devastated the city of Armenia, killing about 1,170 people. Costa Rica and Panama were affected by a magnitude 7.4 earthquake in 1991 that killed more than 80 people and left tens of thousands without essential supplies.
Central Mexico was struck by a devastating magnitude 8.1 earthquake on September 19, 1985, which killed approximately 12,000 people, though the actual toll may be higher. Nicaragua suffered greatly in 1972 from a magnitude 6.2 earthquake that killed more than 6,000 people, with some estimates reaching 9,000. Ecuador also experienced a significant seismic event in 1906, known as the Ecuador-Colombia earthquake, a magnitude 8.8 tremor that generated a tsunami killing about 1,500 people and reaching as far as San Francisco.