1812 Caracas earthquake

Magnitude 7.7 earthquake in Venezuela October 2024 1812 Caracas earthquake Terremoto de 1812.webp "Terremoto de 1812", painting by Tito Salas Venezuela yes 1812 03 26 16:37 ? 7.7w 7.4 and w 7.1 33 km mi 0 on 10.6 -66.9 region:VE_type:event inline,titlehttps://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/hazel/view/hazards/earthquake/event-more-info/1605 Significant Earthquake Information National Geophysical Data Center / World Data Service (NGDC/WDS): NCEI/WDS Global Significant Earthquake Database. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information 1972 NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information July 26, 2022 10.7289/V5TD9V7K X 15,000–20,000 fatalities thumb|Map of the Boconó Fault, showing the main segments, and the western part of the San Sebastián Fault The 1812 Caracas earthquake took place in Venezuela on March 26 (on Maundy Thursday) at 4:37 p.m. It measured ? 7.7 yes. The earthquake caused extensive damage in Caracas, La Guaira, Barquisimeto, San Felipe, and Mérida. An estimated 15,000–20,000 people perished as a result, in addition to incalculable material damage.March 2011 The seismic movement was so significant that in a zone named Valecillo, a new lake was formed and the river Yurubí was dammed up. Numerous rivulets changed their course in the Caracas valley, which was flooded with dirty water.March 2011 The earthquake is believed to have consisted of two seismic shocks, individually measuring w 7.4 yes and w 7.1.Macroseismic Interpretation of the 1812 Earthquakes in Venezuela Using Intensity Uncertainties and A Priori Fault-Strike Information José E. Choy Christl Palme Carlos Guada María Morandi etal Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 2010 100 1 241–255 10.1785/0120080345 https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/ssa/bssa/article/100/1/241/349360/Macroseismic-Interpretation-of-the-1812 The first destroyed Caracas and the second Mérida, where it was raining when the shock occurred.June 2026 Tectonic setting Northern Venezuela lies across the complex boundary between the Caribbean plate and the South American plate. The main motion between these two plates is lateral, with South America moving relatively westwards relative to the Caribbean plate, but these is also a component of shortening with South America moving northwards relative to the Caribbean plate. To the west of Venezuela, the Caribbean plate is subducting beneath the South American plate along the South Caribbean Deformed Belt. The lateral motion is accommodated by a series of dextral (right lateral) strike-slip faults, of which the Oca-Ancón fault system and the Boconó-San Sebastián-El Pilar fault system are the most important. The Boconó Fault trends southwest to bortheast until it reaches the coast and links with the Oca-Ancón fault system, which continues parallel to the coast as the San Sebastián Fault. The Boconó-San Sebastián-El Pilar fault system is the most seismically active structure in Venezuela.Audemard F.A. Machette M.N. Cox J.W. Dart R.L. Haller K.M. 2000 Map and Database of Quaternary Faults in Venezuela and its Offshore Regions https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2000/ofr-00-0018/ofr-00-0018pamphlet.pdf July 26, 2022 United States Geological Survey Earthquake The precise details of the earthquake sequence remain uncertain. There is evidence of two separate sub-events, one to the southwest and another with an epicentre just offshore near Caracas. It is unclear which of these two events came first or whether there was a significant time gap between them. One sub-event ruptured the northeasternmost segment of the Boconó Fault, with an estimated magnitude of 7.4 w while the second sub-event ruptured the San Sebastián Fault offshore Caracas, with an estimated magnitude of 7.1 w.Pousse-Beltran L. Vassallo R. Audemard F. Jouanne F. Oropeza J. Garambois S. Aray J. 2018 Earthquake geology of the last millennium along the Boconó Fault, Venezuela Tectonophysics 747–748 40–53 10.1016/j.tecto.2018.09.010 2018Tectp.747...40P 133987647 Casualties A wide range of figures were accepted for the dead; between 1,000 and 20,000. The archbishop of Caracas, Narciso Coll y Prat, estimated 10,000 to 12,000 deaths across Venezuela, citing a compliation of numbers reported by priests of his diocese in areas under his jurisdiction following his request. However, not all figures were relayed to him. The lowest figure of 1,000 accounted for deaths in Caracas only and was reported in a 1812 publication. About 500 people died in Cuartel San Carlos, a military center in the city, and 40 were killed when a convent in San Jacinto Plaza collapsed. Anthropologist Rogelio Altez estimated the death toll in Caracas to be around 2,000 by extrapolating data from three funeral books and comparing it with census data during the corresponding period. Manuel Sintubin Iain S. Stewart Tina M. Niemi Erhan Altunel Altez Rogelio Ancient Earthquakes New interpretations of the social and material impacts of the 1812 earthquake in Caracas, Venezuela Geological Society of America Special Paper 471 2010 10.1130/2010.2471(05) Response The destruction in Caracas was so widespread that the Gazeta de Caracas suggested founding a new capital city in "the beautiful esplanade of Catia where pure air may be breathed..."2 May 1812 Concluye el artículo anterior https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101079823660&seq=541 2026-09-19 Gazeta de Caracas 13 (#541) IV es Since the earthquake occurred on Maundy Thursday while the Venezuelan War of Independence was raging, it was explained by royalist authorities as divine punishment for the rebellion against the Spanish Crown. The archbishop of Caracas, Narciso Coll y Prat, referred to the event as "the terrifying but well-deserved earthquake" which "confirms in our days the prophecies revealed by God to men about the ancient impious and proud cities: Babylon, Jerusalem and the Tower of Babel"Nacimiento de una nación; Terremoto de 1812 http://www.fpolar.org.ve/Encarte/fasciculo7/fasc0709.html https://web.archive.org/web/20060820151845/http://www.fpolar.org.ve/Encarte/fasciculo7/fasc0709.html August 20, 2006 spanish This prompted the widely quoted answer of Simón Bolívar: "If Nature is against us, we shall fight Nature and make it obey"."Birth of a World: Bolivar in Terms of His Peoples". Book by Waldo David Frank, p. 55, 1951. The first international assistance received by Venezuela in response to the earthquake came from the United States, "when the congress convened in Washington decreed unanimously the sending of five ships loaded with flour, to the coasts of Venezuela to be distributed among the most indigent of its inhabitants."Von Humboldt Alexander Alexander von Humboldt Le voyage aux régions equinoxiales du Nouveau Continent, fait en 1799–1804 14 The $50,000 was the first-ever instance of U.S. foreign aid.Fitz Caitlin Our Sister Republics: The United States in an Age of American Revolutions See also List of earthquakes in Venezuela List of historical earthquakes 2026 Venezuela earthquakes, another earthquake in the region consisting of multiple sub-events References 1812 Category:1812 earthquakes Category:1812 in Venezuela Category:March 1812 Category:19th century in Caracas Category:1812 disasters in South America Category:19th-century disasters in Venezuela