THE NEW YORK TIMES - Any large earthquake can be dangerous, but the residents of Caracas and Venezuelan coastal cities like La Guaira and Catia La Mar were victims of several unlucky factors.
Two quakes in rapid succession, a fault that ruptured toward more populated areas, soft ground and the shallow depth of the temblors all combined to make the June 24 disaster especially severe, even for areas that were miles away from the epicenter.
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“Almost certainly, what happened was that the first earthquake triggered the second one,” said David Oglesby, a professor of geophysics at the University of California, Riverside.