Two devastating earthquakes in western Venezuela reaffirm how to define doublet earthquakes and Venezuela’s history with quakes.
KNX News’ Jon Baird spoke to Christine Goulet, PhD, the director of the Earthquake Science Center at the U.S. Geological Survey, on how to distinguish earthquakes from one another.
Goulet confirms that in a preliminary analysis, the earthquakes in Venezuela are two distinct quakes. They come from different structures and geometries, despite being less than a minute apart.
The different areas can be found on the same fault line, though, meaning these areas are very similar to each other. The different quakes can also be identified through depth, with the first one having a deeper depth than the second.
The rapid sequence of the two earthquakes is unusual, but not completely out of the ordinary, Goulet said. The last time a double earthquake happened in Venezuela was in 1812.
“This is really close in time, and it really contributes to more of the damage we see, and more of the casualties and eventually fatalities because there's no time for people to evacuate,” said Goulet. “When a building has been weakened, and then the other earthquake hits right away.”
The measurement of the two quakes, the first a 7.5 and the second a 7.2, doesn’t refer to the shaking that results.
“Every time you go 0.2 more, the energy release is twice because the magnitude is a measure of the energy released,” said Goulet. “So you go from a 7 to 7.2, it's twice the energy released, it doesn't mean it's twice the shaking.”
Lucy Jones, a seismologist and visiting professor at the California Institute of Technology, said that the Venezuela earthquakes can scale to the risk of California with the San Andreas fault.
Both Jones and Goulet agree that if a Venezuela-type earthquake were to hit Los Angeles, the earthquake-conscious laws for building make the city’s structures less vulnerable.
Goulet advises preparing with an earthquake kit and an established emergency plan to meet up with family and friends, as earthquakes can happen anytime and cannot be predicted.
In L.A., the directive is drop, cover, and hold on if you feel shaking or if you get an earthquake early warning.
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