1967 Caracas earthquake

The 1967 Caracas earthquake occurred in Caracas, Venezuela, and La Guaira, Vargas on 29 July at 8:00 p.m (UTC−04:00 at that time). Its epicenter took place in the litoral central (20 km from Caracas) and lasted 35 seconds. It heavily affected areas such as Altamira, Los Palos Grandes, and Litoral Central. After the earthquake, there were several aftershocks of lower intensity. The earthquake left a toll of 1,536 injured, 225–300 dead, and cost $50–140 million United States Dollars in property damage.

1967 Caracas earthquake
UTC time1967-07-30 00:00:04
ISC event833882
USGS-ANSSComCat
Local date29 July 1967 (1967-07-29)
Local time20:00:04
Magnitude6.6 Mw(ISC-GEM) 
Depth25.0 km (16 mi)
Epicenter10.56°N 67.33°W / 10.56; -67.33
FaultSebastian Fault[1]
TypeStrike-slip[2]
Areas affectedMetropolitan Region of Caracas
Total damage$50–140m USD[3]
Max. intensityVIII (Severe)[4]
Casualties225–300 dead[3]
1,536 injured[3]

Damage

Damage was extensive in the Altamira and Los Palos Grandes sections of Caracas where four major apartment buildings, 10 to 12 stories high, collapsed.[5] Many additional structures were severely damaged and several had to be razed and reconstructed.

Huge sections of walls fell from buildings, flattening cars below and leaving large portions of structures exposed. Rescue workers used cranes and bulldozers to search through the rubble for survivors or victims of the earthquake. A week after the shock, in Caraballeda, rescue operations continued for persons believed trapped beneath the floors of Mansion Charaima, an apartment building across the street from the Macuto Sheraton (which was also damaged). Maracay, about 50 miles west of Caracas, reported five deaths and 100 injuries. Several additional towns reported structural damage.

See also

References
  1. Hanson & Degenkolb 1975, p. 222
  2. Suárez, Gerardo; Nábělek, John (1990), "The 1967 Caracas Earthquake: Fault geometry, direction of rupture propagation and seismotectonic implications" (PDF), Journal of Geophysical Research, 95 (B11): 17459, Bibcode:1990JGR....9517459S, doi:10.1029/JB095iB11p17459
  3. USGS (4 September 2009), PAGER-CAT Earthquake Catalog, Version 2008_06.1, United States Geological Survey
  4. National Geophysical Data Center / World Data Service (NGDC/WDS) (1972), Significant Earthquake Database (Data Set), National Geophysical Data Center, NOAA, doi:10.7289/V5TD9V7K
  5. von Hake, C. A.; Cloud, W. K. (1984), "United States earthquakes, 1967", Open-File Report, Open-File report 84-967, United States Government Printing Office, pp. 67, 68, doi:10.3133/ofr84967

Sources


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