CENC Reports on the Rupture Characteristics of the M 7.1 Earthquake in Venezuela

A June 27 bulletin from the China Earthquake Administration said that the recent magnitude 7.1 earthquake in Venezuela was located in the junction zone of the South American Plate and the Caribbean Plate. The focal mechanism shows it was a strikeslip rupture, mainly with unilateral rupture, lasting about 74 seconds, with a rupture scale of about 130 kilometers. The bulletin noted that the tectonic setting of this area is complex, and its seismic activity is dominated by shallow earthquakes. Since 1900, within 500 kilometers of the epicenter, magnitude 6 earthquakes have been relatively frequent, while earthquakes above magnitude 7 have occurred only once: the magnitude 8.4 Venezuela earthquake on October 29, 1900. Analysis by the Institute of Geophysics of the China Earthquake Administration also shows that this earthquake's rupture process had multistage characteristics, with the possible superposition of multiple subevents. The overall slip was relatively shallow, and there is a possibility that the rupture propagated eastward all the way to the surface or the seabed. The China Earthquake Networks Center determined that the earthquake occurred at 6:04 a.m. Beijing time on June 25, with a focal depth of 10 kilometers, and the epicenter was on land within Venezuela.