00:18Last night, Venezuela was hit by not one, but two massive earthquakes, 39 seconds apart.
00:26And what happened in between is something seismologists almost never see.
00:32It's Wednesday evening.
00:34People in Caracas are finishing dinner, sitting on their balconies, going about their night.
00:39Then, at 6 p.m. local time, the ground starts moving.
00:43Buildings shake, alarms go off, people run into the streets.
00:47And then, before anyone can even catch their breath, it hits again, harder.
01:10Here's what's wild.
01:11The first quake, a 7.2 magnitude, would, on its own, be a major disaster.
01:17But 39 seconds later, a 7.5 hit almost the exact same spot.
01:24Scientists call this a seismic doublet.
01:27Two large earthquakes so close in time and location that the ground never gets a chance to recover.
01:47The second wave hits already weakened structures.
01:50It's like punching a bruise.
01:52This kind of event is extremely rare and extremely dangerous.
01:57Buildings in Caracas collapsed.
01:59You can see it in the footage.
02:01Walls caved in.
02:03Dust clouds.
02:04Furniture visible from the street where walls used to be.
02:07Maikiti International Airport, the main gateway into the country, was shut down due to structural damage.
02:14Power went out across multiple states.
02:16And rescue teams right now are searching through rubble for survivors.
02:20The USGS warned of potentially high casualties.
02:24The full picture is still emerging.
02:27Venezuela sits right on the boundary between the Caribbean and South American tectonic plates.
02:33These plates grind against each other along a fault system called Bocono.
02:37And when they slip, they slip hard.
02:40The last time Venezuela saw anything close to this was over a century ago.
02:45And here's the thing that makes this worse.
02:47The country is already dealing with a serious economic crisis.
02:52Rebuilding after something like this requires resources Venezuela is currently stretched very thin on.
02:58A state of emergency has been declared.
03:01Schools are closed.
03:02Residents are being told to stay outside because aftershocks, which could themselves be powerful, are expected for days, maybe weeks.
03:10A brief tsunami warning was issued for the coast and nearby Caribbean islands, but that was quickly lifted.
03:17International rescue teams are mobilizing.
03:19The story is still unfolding.
03:22Two earthquakes, 39 seconds.
03:25A country in chaos.
03:26We'll be tracking every update on this.
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