October 21, 1766 Earthquake: Cumana, San Juan Bautista, Trinidad, Venezuela

Name: October 21, 1766 Earthquake: Cumana, San Juan Bautista, Trinidad, Venezuela
Start: 1766-10-21
Location: Cumana, San Juan Bautista, Trinidad, Venezuela

October 21, 1766 · M7.5

A magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck Cumana, San Juan Bautista, Trinidad, Venezuela on October 21, 1766 at 09:00 UTC. It caused a tsunami.

Map

Where it struck, with the other significant earthquakes within 200 km. Circles are sized and colored by magnitude; select one for its page.

The earthquake

Date: October 21, 1766
Time: 09:00 UTC
Place: Cumana, San Juan Bautista, Trinidad, Venezuela
Magnitude: 7.5 (Ms)
Intensity: IX, violent shaking, on the Modified Mercalli scale
Tsunami: Yes: the tsunami it caused
Epicenter: 10.470° N, 64.170° W
Country: Venezuela
Region: South America

The toll

Damage: Severe (about $5 to $25 million)

Where the literature gives no number, NCEI records a description on a scale of 1 to 4, printed here in its words. Damage is in millions of US dollars of the year of the event, not adjusted for inflation.

From Wikipedia

The Spanish territories of today Venezuela and Trinidad were struck by a major earthquake on 21 October 1766 at 4:30 in the morning local time in Cumaná, Venezuela (4:45 local time in Trinidad). It caused widespread damage from Caracas in the west to Georgetown, Guyana in the east. Despite the significant damage caused, there are no reports of casualties associated with this earthquake. It had an estimated magnitude in the range 6.5–7.5 Ms and a maximum felt intensity of IX-X (destructive to very destructive) on the European macroseismic scale. It was felt from Guadeloupe in the north to the Ventuari River in the south and Maracaibo in the west and Kaw, French Guiana in the east.

Text from Wikipedia, “1766 Southeastern Caribbean earthquake”, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Quoted as written; the full article has the rest.

What the record says

NCEI’s account, from the sources it cites.

Este terremoto conocido coloquialmente como el terremoto de Santa Úrsula, por haber ocurrido en día señalado por el santoral católico, tuvo varios efectos geológicos co-sísmicos en las costas orientales venezolanas, donde destacan terrenos elevados (p.e. Punta Delgada,Cumaná), caída de bloques (Cerro Paruaní, Península de Paria), y terrenos en subsidencia (sin especificar lugar de ocurrencia; O'Loughlin & Lander, 2003). [This earthquake known colloquially as the earthquake of Santa Ursula, because it occurred on a day marked by the Catholic saints, had several co-seismic geological effects on the Venezuelan east coast, where high terrain (eg Punta Delgada, Cumaná) (Cerro Paruaní, Peninsula de Paria), and land subsided (without specifying place of occurrence, O'Loughlin & Lander, 2003).](reference #11659)

An earthquake uplifted a huge area at Cumana and left it in ruins. Venezuela and eastern Colombia were heavily affected. Shepherd and Lynch (1992) said, "This was the biggest known historical earthquake in the region, remarkable for its high epicentral intensities, very large total felt area, both of which imply a high magnitude, and an intermediate focal depth."

1765, Trinidad, listed in reference #124 is considered spurious by reference #386 and should be 1766.

Sources NCEI cites

The publications NCEI lists for this record. The numbers match the “reference #” notes in its account above.

#124 Grases, Jose (1990). Terremotos Destructores del Caribe, 1502-1990. UNESCO-RELACIS, Montevideo.
#1211 Silgado F., E. (1985). Destructive Earthquakes of South America 1530-1894, vol. 10, Centro Regional de Sismologia para America del Sur, Lima, Peru.
#3833 Mocquet, Antoine (2007). Analysis and interpretation of the October 21, 1766 earthquake in the southeastern Caribbean. Journal of Seismology, vol. 1, p. 381-403.
#1209 Askew, B.L., and S.T. Algermissen (1985). Catalog of Earthquakes for South America, Hypocenter and Intensity Data, vol. 8 - Venezuela, Centro Regional de Sismologia para America del Sur, Lima, Peru.
#1502 Fiedler, G.E. (1961). Areas afectadas por teremotos en Venezuela (1791-1814), Boletin Geologica 4, Publicacion Especial 3, Memorias del III Congreso Geologico Venezolano, Ministeria de Minas e Hidrocarburos, Caracas (in Spanish).
#492 Centeno-Grau, M. (1969). Estudios Sesmologicos, Bibliotheca Academia Ciencias Frisicas, Matematicas y Naturales, VIII, Caracas, Venezuela, Segunda Edicion.
#386 Shepherd, John B., and Lloyd L. Lynch (1992). An earthquake catalogue for the Caribbean, Part 1, the pre-instrumental period 1502-1900, presentation to the Steering Committee, Latin American and Caribbean Seismic Hazard Program, Melbourne, Florida, 60 p.
#11659 Javier Oropeza and Franck Audemard (2016). Contribucion Al Estudio De Tsunamis Y Otras Amenazas Costeras En Venezuela. Nuestro Sur: Historia, Memoria y Patrimonio. Año 6. Numero 9. Enero - Abril 2016. Fundacion Centro Nacional de Historia. Caracas, Venezuela. P. 193 - 215

Other significant earthquakes nearby

Within 200 km, the deadliest first.

Significant earthquakes of 1766 The 1700s Recent earthquakes near here This day in weather history

Sources

Significant earthquakes from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, Global Historical Hazard Database, cited as NCEI/WDS, doi:10.7289/V5PN93H7. Public domain. Read 2026-10-01. NCEI earthquake 1387.