Quake near Mene Grande in Venezuela around 6.2, no major damage

A strong earthquake with a magnitude around 6.2 struck northwest Venezuela late Wednesday, shaking towns in Zulia state and sending tremors across the country and into neighboring Colombia and parts of the southern Caribbean, officials and seismic agencies said. The quake occurred at about 22:21 UTC and was centered in the vicinity of Mene Grande, an oil town on the eastern shore of Lake Maracaibo, authorities said.

Estimates of the quake's strength and depth varied among monitoring agencies. The U.S. Geological Survey recorded a magnitude of 6.2 with a shallow depth of about 7.8 kilometers and placed the epicenter roughly 24 kilometers from Mene Grande. The European Mediterranean Seismological Centre reported the epicenter as 12 kilometers south of Mene Grande at a depth of 35 kilometers. Venezuela's national seismology body registered smaller events in the hours around the main tremor, and the Colombian Geological Survey measured the event at magnitude 6.1. A German research center gave a magnitude of about 6.3 at roughly 10 kilometers depth. Officials and experts cautioned that differences are common in initial seismic readings and are often revised as more data are processed.