Once an oil-rich nation with investments in building standards and disaster preparedness, Venezuela has fallen into economic turmoil, testing its ability to respond to the latest disaster, experts say.
https://news.northeastern.edu/2026/06/25/rare-earthquake-doublet-that-hit-venezuela/
A magnitude 7.2 initial shock struck first at 6:04 p.m. local time, with a larger magnitude 7.5 mainshock 39 seconds later. The closely spaced epicenters and rapid succession of two powerful earthquakes subjected northern Venezuela to two rounds of severe shaking in less than a minute, amplifying the potential for widespread structural damage, according to USGS.
Northern Venezuela has a long history of damaging earthquakes, including a notable magnitude 6.3 earthquake in Caracas in 1967, which killed more than 200 people and injured hundreds more, according to USGS. While major earthquakes are relatively uncommon in the immediate area affected by Wednesday’s doublet, the region also experienced a pair of magnitude 6.2 and 6.3 earthquakes in September 2025 that injured more than 110 people and caused extensive structural damage across western Venezuela, according to USGS.
Some experts suggested that many of the collapsed buildings were made of non-ductile, or “brittle,” concrete — an assessment with which Mehrdad Sasani, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Northeastern University, agrees.
“A building’s ability to survive an earthquake depends largely on how much it can move,” he explained. “More ductile structures can absorb more energy and deform without collapsing. Brittle structures can tolerate much less movement before they fail.”
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https://www.cbsnews.com/video/video-captures-moment-venezuela-earthquake/
https://www.mtu.edu/geo/community/seismology/learn/earthquake-measure/magnitude/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richter_scale
| Magnitude | Earthquake Effects | Estimated Number Each Year |
|---|---|---|
| 2.5 or less | Usually not felt, but can be recorded by seismograph. | Millions |
| 2.5 to 5.4 | Often felt, but only causes minor damage. | 500,000 |
| 5.5 to 6.0 | Slight damage to buildings and other structures. | 350 |
| 6.1 to 6.9 | May cause a lot of damage in very populated areas. | 100 |
| 7.0 to 7.9 | Major earthquake. Serious damage. | 10-15 |
| 8.0 or greater | Great earthquake. Can totally destroy communities near the epicenter. | One every year or two |
https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/graph-showing-earthquake-magnitudes-and-equivalent-energy-release
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metmike: This is a logarithmic scale below. Each number higher has 31.6X more energy than the previous one. Let's round that off to 30 for convenience.
So a 6 is 30X stronger than a 5. A 7 is 30X stronger than a 6 and 30X30=900X stronger than a 5.
An 8 is 30X stronger than a 7. It's 900 times stronger than a 6 and 30X30X30=27,000X stronger than a 5!!!!
If we used 31.6 instead of 30, that last number would be 31,554X stronger.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Richter_scale#/media/File:Richter_scale.jpg
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Damage from winds in hurricanes and tornadoes follow a similar logarithmic/exponential damaging scale as they increase:
Severe storms, hurricanes and especially tornadoes that have the strongest winds of all, which means the tornadoes with winds over 150 mph have incredible damage.
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A 150 mph wind does 256X more damage than a 75 mph wind. Let's repeat that. A 150 mph wind does 256x more damage than a 75 mph wind!
Hurricane Damage Potential
https://www.noaa.gov/jetstream/tc-potential
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Less than 1% of tornadoes are F4 or F5 but they kill 67% of the people!
Note that the majority of tornadoes, F0 and F1= 74%(on the old scale) only killed 4% of people and they were probably outside or in a mobile home.
The F4 and F5's were just 1% but caused 67% of deaths.
Heres that scale below. The revised EF scale below is comparable to the F scale above.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enhanced_Fujita_scale
| EFU | Unknown | No surveyable damage |
|---|---|---|
| EF0 | 65–85 mph | Light damage |
| EF1 | 86–110 mph | Moderate damage |
| EF2 | 111–135 mph | Considerable damage |
| EF3 | 136–165 mph | Severe damage |
| EF4 | 166–200 mph | Devastating damage |
| EF5 | >200 mph | Incredible damage |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seismic_magnitude_scales
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Video tutorials below
How the Richter scale measures earthquakes
The Richter scale and how it measures earthquake magnitude. The Richter scale calculates an earthquake's magnitude (size) from the amplitude of the earthquake's largest seismic wave recorded by a seismograph.
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Learn about P waves, S waves, Love waves, and Rayleigh waves generated by an earthquake
https://www.britannica.com/video/waves-patterns-speeds-Earth-Love-surface-types/-68348
https://www.britannica.com/video/Richter-scale-Mercalli-earthquakes-magnitude-intensity/-68349
https://www.britannica.com/video/newsreels-destruction-tsunami-Hilo-Hawaii-1946/-68438
Seismic waves travel in different patterns and at different speeds through the Earth. The most damaging are the surface types—the Love waves and the Rayleigh waves.
https://geology.com/records/largest-earthquake/
World's Twelve Largest EarthquakesIncludes all measured earthquakes since 1900 | ||
| Magnitude | Location | Date |
| 9.5 | Chile | 05/22/1960 |
| 9.2 | Alaska | 03/28/1964 |
| 9.1 | Off the coast of Northern Sumatra | 12/26/2004 |
| 9.1 | Honshu, Japan | 03/11/2011 |
| 9.0 | Kamchatka | 11/04/1952 |
| 8.8 | Off the coast of Chile | 02/27/2010 |
| 8.8 | Off the coast of Ecuador | 01/31/1906 |
| 8.7 | Rat Islands, Alaska | 02/04/1965 |
| 8.6 | Tibet | 08/15/1950 |
| 8.6 | Off the coast of Northern Sumatra | 04/11/2012 |
| 8.6 | Northern Sumatra | 03/28/2005 |
| 8.6 | Andreanof Islands, Alaska | 03/09/19 |
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https://geology.com/records/largest-earthquake/
World's largest earthquake - tsunami map: The Chilean earthquake produced a powerful tsunami that traveled at a speed of about 200 miles per hour across the Pacific Ocean. The wave killed 61 people in Hawaii, 138 in Japan, and 32 in the Philippines. The star marks the location of the epicenter, and the numbers on the contour lines are travel times in hours for the wave front. Image by NOAA. Enlarge map.
The world's largest earthquake with an instrumentally documented magnitude occurred on May 22, 1960 near Valdivia, in southern Chile. It was assigned a magnitude of 9.5 by the United States Geological Survey. It is referred to as the "Great Chilean Earthquake" and the "1960 Valdivia Earthquake."
The United States Geological Survey reports this event as the "largest earthquake of the 20th Century." Other earthquakes in recorded history may have been larger; however, this is the largest earthquake that has occurred since accurate estimates of magnitude became possible in the early 1900s.
This is one of the few earthquakes that has killed large numbers of people at distant locations. Tsunamis generated by the earthquake traveled across the Pacific Ocean at a speed of over 200 miles per hour. Changes in sea level were noticed all around the Pacific Ocean basin.
Fifteen hours after the earthquake, a tsunami with a runup of 35 feet swept over coastal areas of Hawaii. Many shoreline facilities and buildings near coastal areas were destroyed. Near Hilo, Hawaii, 61 people were reported killed by the waves.
In California, many small boats were damaged as the waves swept through marinas. At Crescent City, a wave had a runup of about 5 feet and caused damage to shoreline structures and small boats.
Waves up to 18 feet high hit the island of Honshu, Japan about 22 hours after the earthquake. There it destroyed more than 1600 homes and left 185 people dead or missing. Another 32 people were killed in the Philippines about 24 hours after the earthquake. Damage also occurred on Easter Island and Samoa.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1811%E2%80%9312_New_Madrid_earthquakes
"New forecasts estimate a 7 to 10 percent chance, in the next 50 years, of a repeat of a major earthquake like those that occurred in 1811–1812, which likely had magnitudes of between 7.6 and 8.0. There is a 25 to 40 percent chance, in a 50-year time span, of a magnitude 6.0 or greater earthquake."
New Madrid fault and earthquake-prone region considered at high risk today
| Date | Time (UTC) | Magnitude Mw | Location | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| December 16 | 08:15:00 | 7.5 | Northeast Arkansas | [1] |
| December 16 | 09:00:00 | 6.3 | Near New Madrid, Missouri | [5] |
| December 16 | 13:15:00 | 7.0 | Western Tennessee | [2] |
| December 16 | 18:00:00 | 6.3 | Near New Madrid, Missouri | [6] |
| December 17 | 18:00:00 | 6.1 | Near Memphis, Tennessee | [7] |
| January 23 | 15:00:00 | 7.3 | North of New Madrid, Missouri | [3] |
| February 7 | 09:45:00 | 7.5 | Western Tennessee | [4] |
| November 9 | 22:00:00 | 4.0 | New Madrid, Missouri area | [17] |
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8z2-uR23kU
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I did spend a great deal of time studying ASTROLOGY, especially with regards to predicting earthquakes and was invited to speak at dozens of meetings/organizations in 1990 about it because I was chief meteorologist at WEHT-TV in Evansville and everybody was panicking about the BIG ONE coming based on Iben Browning's astrology/fake earthquake prediction.
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By metmike - Nov. 20, 2025, 4:16 p.m.
Thanks, fayq!
Everybody can express their views here on any topic.
However, when it doesn't conform to science, is not the truth or is fraudulent, I will push back, especially as a scientist that spend a year studying it extremely close in 1990(thanks to Iben Browning's fake earthquake prediction using it). I spent much of the year doing speaking engagements telling local residents that it was junk science.
Using astrology for anything, including the stock market is complete pseudo science. Take any 100 studies on this and the result is always the same.
Those that show Astrology is junk =100
Those that show Astrology, with its mystical power can predict things =0
There is a subset of situations where this can work. If you have enough people that believe and act on complete rubbish, the law of self-fulfilling prophesy's kicks in. The complete rubbish becomes THE indicator!
That law is driving the stock market to some extent but IT'S NOT BECAUSE THE PARTICIPANTS ARE FOLLOWING ASTROLOGY.
People that believe in Astrology could read 1 million studies that prove there is no relationship to science or value in predicting things but that makes 0 difference. Once we're truly convinced in something, human cognitive bias causes us to reject everything that contradicts that, including all the authentic facts. It causes us to twist realities so that they conform to what WE WANT TO BELIEVE.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrology_and_science
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Is there some unknown, mystical force that scientists like me just don't understand?
That could be because we don't know everything.
However, if that was the case in Astrology, then it's track record with studies testing it, would not be ZERO providing solid evidence of it working and the rest of them (all of them) busting it and showing it to be worthless for making reliable predictions.
Other than if you had the majority of people believing in it in some realm, it would work because we know with certainty the ASTRONOMY science and can predict accurately where all the planets will be and when.
But the market is MUCH smarter than that. The Composite Man (from Wyckoff) which is the mentality of the entire market as it behaves and moves includes some really smart people that control trillions of dollars.
You can trust me on this one:
They are NOT using Astrology. People who use it like believing that they have unique knowledge in a mystical force which gives them an edge in seeing the future.
It's no better than flipping a coin. Your work here even shows that. I could have flipped a coin every day for the last year and used it to predict the stock market and been correct close to 50% of the time.
Do I have a magical mystery coin that predicts things?
Regardless, you are extremely welcome to show us your stuff. When it verifies and its based on Astrology, every single time that happens it will be based on the same thing that my coin toss is. Almost no exceptions.
When you dial in other indicators that have value.........then that has potential predictive power.
Again, please do generously share your stuff with us. I won't bash the Astrology like this every time.
Junk science, Astrology just needs a reality check from time to time:
By metmike - June 13, 2024, 6:10 p.m.
Unprecedented movement detected on California earthquake fault Started by metmike - Oct. 22, 2019, 7:21 p.m.
I added the tornado wind damage scale to make the last part of that post about wind damage being exponential with velocity easier to understand.
