The Structural Extreme Events Reconnaissance (StEER) Network has issued a Preliminary Virtual Reconnaissance Report (PVRR) for the seismic doublet that struck northern Venezuela on June 24, 2026: an Mw 7.2 earthquake followed 39 seconds later by an Mw 7.5 earthquake.
The first product of StEER’s Level 1 response to the Northern Venezuela Earthquake is this Preliminary Virtual Reconnaissance Report (PVRR), which is intended to: (1) provide an overview of the sequence and associated hazards affecting the built environment; (2) summarize relevant Venezuelan seismic design provisions, code evolution, and construction practices; (3) synthesize preliminary observations of building, infrastructure, geotechnical, coastal, and lifeline performance and identify patterns therein; and (4) identify the following recommendations for continued study by the broader reconnaissance community:
- Source-traceable, georeferenced documentation of representative building damage,
- Directionality effects on building performance,
- Implications of the earthquake sequence (doublet) itself,
- Performance of historical structures through a stock-level survey,
- Effect of unreinforced masonry infill and potential retrofit strategies.
The PVRR can be found here.
Visit the StEER website (https://www.steer.network ) for more information on this and other natural hazard event responses, as well as to "join StEER" to stay connected with StEER activities.