Trinidad coastline lifts after Venezuela earthquakes

Scientists investigating the southwestern coast of Trinidad have linked a sudden rise of the shoreline at Galfa Point to the powerful earthquakes that struck northeastern Venezuela at the end of June. The earthquakes, measuring magnitude 7.2 and 7.5, have killed nearly 2,000 people and left an estimated 70,000 missing. Geologists from the University of the West Indies, including Xavier Moonan, observed that sections of the beach and seabed were lifted by up to six metres, trapping dead fish, crabs and stingrays on the newly exposed shore.

In the nearby Palo Seco Bay, researchers identified a mud‑volcano extrusion about four metres above the sea floor, composed of soft clay and calcite‑rich rock fragments. Moonan explained that the mud‑volcano and the coastal uplift share a common origin in the seismic activity, though they involve different geological mechanisms – a reactivated slump for the uplift and a fault‑driven mud eruption for the volcano.