Double earthquake and nonlinearity: uncounted seismic energy in the Venezuela 2026 doublet?
This preprint presents a physical hypothesis regarding the seismic doublet that struck Venezuela on June 24, 2026: two earthquakes of magnitude M7.2 and M7.5, separated by only 60 seconds and 9 kilometers, with the second event being stronger and shallower than the first. Starting from the principle of energy conservation, the analysis argues that the singular nature of this event — a second rupture nucleating in rock already driven into the nonlinear regime by the first — may have generated a fraction of seismic energy that conventional analysis does not account for. This nonlinear energy shifts to intermodulation frequencies (notably a ~60 s / 228 km component) that fall outside the passband of common short-period seismometers, making it difficult to measure. The document estimates the distance of maximum nonlinear accumulation (100–200 km, coinciding with Caracas and Maiquetía), examines the speaker-cone amplification geometry of the La Guaira coastline, and proposes specific falsifiable predictions and the instruments (VBB seismometers, high-rate GNSS, strainmeters, InSAR) needed to verify them. It is an open invitation to verify, not a closed claim
Authors
- RAFAEL ARIAS GAMEZ
Publication Details
- Journal
- Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
- Published
- 2026-06-28
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21013563
- Primary Topic
- Geological and Tectonic Studies in Latin America
- Type
- preprint