Venezuela Earthquakes 2026
On 24 June 2026 — two days ago as of today — Venezuela was struck by one of the most catastrophic seismic events in South American history. At 18:04 VET (22:04 UTC), a Mw 7.2 earthquake struck east-northeast of San Felipe in Yaracuy state. Just 39 seconds later, a Mw 7.5 mainshock — the largest earthquake to strike Venezuela since the magnitude 7.7 San Narciso earthquake of 1900 — hit directly to the north, near Yumare, at a depth of only 10 kilometres. Both epicentres were in the Veroes municipality, Yaracuy state, approximately 284–293 kilometres west of Caracas. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) classified the pairing as a “doublet earthquake” — a scientifically rare occurrence in which two earthquakes of nearly equal magnitude strike in rapid succession along the same fault system. As of the morning of 26 June 2026, official figures from Venezuela’s Health Minister Carlos Alvarado confirmed at least 235 people killed and more than 4,300 injured at hospitals nationwide. A missing persons tracking website listed more than 46,000 people unaccounted for, though that figure has not been independently confirmed. The USGS PAGER (Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response) system assigned a 39% probability of between 1,000 and 10,000 deaths, a 37% probability of 10,000 to 100,000 deaths, and an 11% probability that the final death toll will exceed 100,000 — a stark statistical projection that reflects both the magnitude of the quake and the vulnerability of Venezuela’s building stock and crisis-weakened infrastructure.
The human scale of the destruction is still being understood. La Guaira, the coastal state immediately north of Caracas, was immediately designated a disaster zone by Acting President Delcy Rodríguez — and for good reason. More than 100 buildings collapsed in La Guaira alone, with entire neighbourhoods in Playa Grande, Tanaguarenas, and Los Corales flattened, visible in helicopter footage showing kilometre-scale fields of rubble. In Caracas itself, the Los Palos Grandes and Altamira neighbourhoods suffered the worst damage within the capital — at least three buildings collapsed in Altamira, including a 22-storey structure that collapsed entirely. The French Embassy building and the Venezuelan Red Cross headquarters were both severely damaged. Simón Bolívar International Airport, the primary gateway to Caracas, sustained heavy damage and all flights were cancelled. At least 138 aftershocks had been recorded by the National Assembly president as of Thursday 25 June. The United States pledged $150 million in emergency aid — a $100 million contribution to a UN humanitarian fund and $50 million to aid organisations already in country — while deploying two elite urban search and rescue teams from Fairfax County, Virginia (80 personnel, 6 dogs) and Los Angeles County (71 personnel, 6 dogs).
Interesting Facts: Venezuela Earthquake Statistics 2026
| Fact | Figure |
|---|---|
| Date and time of foreshock | 24 June 2026, 18:04 VET (22:04 UTC) |
| Foreshock magnitude | Mw 7.2 |
| Time interval to mainshock | 39 seconds |
| Mainshock magnitude | Mw 7.5 |
| Mainshock depth | 10 km (6.2 mi) |
| Foreshock depth | 21.9 km (13.6 mi) |
| Epicentre location | Veroes municipality, Yaracuy state |
| Distance from Caracas | ~284–293 km west |
| USGS classification | “Doublet earthquake” |
| Largest Venezuela quake since | 1900 San Narciso earthquake (Mw 7.7) |
| Confirmed dead (Health Minister, June 25) | At least 235 |
| Confirmed injured (hospitals) | More than 4,300 |
| Missing persons (tracking website, unconfirmed) | 46,000+ |
| Missing in La Guaira alone (separate database) | 11,200+ |
| People still trapped in rubble (National Assembly, June 25) | More than 200 |
| National Assembly figure (188 dead, 1,520 injured) | Earlier count — superseded by 235/4,300 |
| Aftershocks as of June 25 | 138+ |
| Largest aftershock | mb 4.5 |
| USGS PAGER probability — 1,000–10,000 deaths | 39% |
| USGS PAGER probability — 10,000–100,000 deaths | 37% |
| USGS PAGER probability — 100,000+ deaths | 11% |
| Probability of M6.0+ quake in next 7 days (USGS) | ~40% |
| Buildings collapsed in La Guaira | More than 100 |
| 22-storey building fully collapsed (Altamira, Caracas) | 1 confirmed |
| Simón Bolívar International Airport | Heavily damaged — all flights cancelled |
| US aid pledged | $150 million |
| US search and rescue teams deployed | Fairfax County (80 people, 6 dogs) + LA County (71 people, 6 dogs) |
| Economic damage estimate (Al Jazeera forecast) | Up to 7% of Venezuela’s GDP |
| Date is a Venezuelan national holiday | June 24 — Battle of Carabobo (1821) |
Source: Wikipedia — 2026 Venezuela earthquakes (updated June 25, 2026); USGS PAGER system (June 24–25, 2026); Al Jazeera, June 25, 2026; CNN live updates, June 24–25, 2026; ABC News live updates, June 25, 2026; NPR, June 25, 2026; CNBC, June 25, 2026
The USGS PAGER probability distribution — a 37% chance of 10,000 to 100,000 deaths and an 11% chance exceeding 100,000 — is not alarmism but a reflection of the statistical models built from decades of global earthquake data applied to Venezuela’s specific conditions. PAGER’s modelling incorporates building vulnerability, population density, ground conditions, and seismic attenuation; Venezuela scores poorly on nearly all dimensions relevant to resilience. Approximately 80% of Venezuela’s population lives in earthquake-prone zones, many in informal housing not engineered for seismic resistance, with decades of economic contraction having deferred maintenance and construction upgrades across formal building stock. The confirmed death toll of 235 will almost certainly rise substantially as rescue operations reach isolated communities and as the full extent of La Guaira’s destruction — where communications were disabled immediately after the quake — is systematically assessed.
The fact that the earthquakes struck on 24 June — Venezuela’s National Day, commemorating the 1821 Battle of Carabobo — is a grim statistical coincidence with real consequences: more people were at home rather than at work, dramatically increasing residential exposure to building collapses. Apartment buildings in Caracas — which were already standing after decades of deferred maintenance under Venezuela’s economic crisis — were the primary collapse vectors in the city. A seismologist at Northeastern University described the doublet nature of the event as particularly devastating: the foreshock had already weakened structural connections in buildings throughout the region when the larger mainshock struck 39 seconds later, compounding failure in structures that might have survived either event in isolation.
Venezuela 2026 Earthquake — Seismological Details
2026 Venezuela Doublet Earthquake — Seismic Profile (USGS)
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Mw 7.2 Foreshock |████████████████████████████████████████████████| 22:04:00 UTC — depth 21.9 km
↓ 39-second gap ↓
Mw 7.5 Mainshock |████████████████████████████████████████████████████| 22:04:39 UTC — depth 10 km
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Fault system: Boconó–San Sebastián–El Pilar (right-lateral strike-slip)
Rupture zone: ~150 km × 20 km along San Sebastián Fault
Region: Caribbean Plate / South American Plate transform boundary
Source: USGS; Wikipedia 2026 Venezuela earthquakes
| Seismological Metric | Data |
|---|---|
| Foreshock magnitude | Mw 7.2 |
| Foreshock time | 22:04 UTC (18:04 VET), 24 June 2026 |
| Foreshock depth | 21.9 km (13.6 mi) |
| Foreshock location | East-northeast of San Felipe, Yaracuy |
| Foreshock mechanism | Left-lateral strike-slip (E-W fault) or right-lateral (N-S fault) |
| Mainshock magnitude | Mw 7.5 |
| Mainshock time | 22:04:39 UTC — 39 seconds after foreshock |
| Mainshock depth | 10 km (6.2 mi) — shallow, amplifies surface damage |
| Mainshock location | North of foreshock, southeast of Yumare, Yaracuy |
| Mainshock mechanism | Right-lateral strike-slip along E-W trending fault |
| Fault system | Boconó–San Sebastián–El Pilar (Caribbean/S. American plate boundary) |
| Estimated rupture zone (mainshock) | 150 km × 20 km along San Sebastián Fault |
| GFZ Potsdam report | Mw 7.4 — epicentre northwest of Caracas |
| GEOSCOPE Observatory | Single Mw 7.8 event (merged doublet) |
| USGS classification | “Doublet earthquake” — scientifically rare pairing |
| Tectonic context | Transform boundary — Caribbean Plate moves east relative to S. American Plate |
| Fault system length | 1,300 km along northern Venezuela |
Source: USGS; Wikipedia — 2026 Venezuela earthquakes; GFZ Potsdam; GEOSCOPE Observatory; NPR, June 25, 2026
The Boconó–San Sebastián–El Pilar fault system that produced the June 24 doublet is the principal active seismic structure of northern Venezuela — a 1,300-kilometre right-lateral strike-slip fault running from the central Venezuelan Andes, along the country’s north-central and northeastern coast, toward Trinidad. It marks the transform plate boundary in the southern Caribbean, where the Caribbean Plate moves eastward relative to the South American Plate. Strike-slip faults of this type are characterised by horizontal movement rather than vertical displacement, which means they do not generate the large seafloor vertical motion that produces tsunamis as efficiently as subduction zone earthquakes — though a tsunami warning was issued for Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands immediately after the quake and later cancelled.
The 10-kilometre depth of the Mw 7.5 mainshock is critical to understanding why surface damage was so extensive. Shallow earthquakes — generally defined as those occurring at depths less than 70 kilometres — release their energy closer to the surface, producing more intense and destructive ground motion than deeper events of equivalent magnitude. At 10 km, the mainshock’s energy reached the surface with minimal attenuation, producing ground accelerations sufficient to collapse reinforced concrete buildings that were not designed to modern seismic codes. USGS seismologist Paul Earle told NPR: “This doesn’t happen very often. When they’re right together, it’s hard to understand what would happen” — a reference to the compounding effect of a weakening foreshock followed by a larger mainshock 39 seconds later, before occupants had time to react and before the building’s structural systems had time to recover.
Venezuela 2026 Earthquake — Damage and Casualties by Location
Damage Overview by State/City — Venezuela June 24, 2026 (Wikipedia / CNN / ABC)
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La Guaira |████████████████████████████████████████████████████| 100+ buildings collapsed; disaster zone; 11,200+ missing
Caracas (overall)|████████████████████████████████████████████████████| Dozens of buildings; 22-storey collapse; airport closed
Altamira/Los P.G.|████████████████████████████████████████████████████| Worst-hit Caracas areas; 3 buildings incl. 22-story
Carabobo state |████████████████████████████████████████ | 9 deaths in building collapses; 40+ injured
Arauca state |████████████████████ | Multiple collapses
Miranda/Trujillo |████████████████████ | Building collapses confirmed
Baruta |████████████████████ | 3 dead in 2 structure collapses
Pinto Salinas |████████████████████ | 2+ dead in building collapse
Chacao |████████████████ | Deaths + 16+ injuries; 2 buildings collapsed
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Total confirmed dead: 235+ | Total injured (hospitals): 4,300+
Source: Wikipedia 2026 Venezuela earthquakes; CNN; ABC News; Al Jazeera — June 24–25, 2026
| Location | Key Damage / Casualties |
|---|---|
| La Guaira state | Disaster zone; 100+ buildings collapsed; 11,200+ missing per local database |
| Playa Grande, Tanaguarenas, Los Corales (La Guaira) | Entire neighbourhoods flattened — visible in helicopter footage |
| Altamira neighbourhood, Caracas | 3+ buildings collapsed including 22-storey complete collapse |
| Los Palos Grandes, Caracas | Interior minister named worst-hit district in capital |
| Simón Bolívar International Airport | Heavily damaged; all flights cancelled |
| French Embassy, Caracas | Severely damaged |
| Venezuelan Red Cross HQ, Caracas | Severely damaged |
| Southeastern Caracas (unspecified) | Near-total high-rise damage across the area |
| Chacao municipality | Deaths + at least 16 injuries; 2 buildings collapsed |
| Baruta municipality | 3 dead in 2 structure collapses |
| Puerto Cabello, Juan José Mora, San Diego | 13 deaths combined |
| Carabobo state | 9 deaths from building collapses; 40+ injuries at hospitals |
| Trujillo, Aragua, Miranda | Multiple building collapses confirmed |
| José María Vargas Hospital (La Guaira) | Overwhelmed; casualties treated outdoors |
| Tremors felt in | Bogotá + northeastern Colombia; northern Brazil; Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao; parts of Dominican Republic |
Source: Wikipedia — 2026 Venezuela earthquakes (updated June 25, 2026); CNN live updates June 24–25, 2026; ABC News live updates June 25, 2026; Al Jazeera June 25, 2026
The 100+ building collapses in La Guaira — a coastal state of roughly 400,000 residents wedged between steep mountains and the Caribbean Sea — is the single most concentrated zone of destruction. La Guaira’s geography amplifies seismic risk: soft coastal sediments beneath the city amplify ground motion compared to solid rock, a phenomenon well-documented in earthquakes from Mexico City to San Francisco. Buildings constructed on sediment can experience significantly higher acceleration than identical structures on bedrock nearby, explaining why La Guaira absorbed disproportionate destruction relative to its distance from the epicentre. Rescue teams, initially limited to digging with their hands due to a shortage of heavy equipment, faced a race against the physiological survival window for people trapped under collapsed reinforced concrete.
The scale of the missing persons crisis remains one of the most alarming elements of the disaster. The 46,000 unaccounted figure from a missing persons tracking website — while unconfirmed through official channels — reflects the dual problem of infrastructure destruction and media blackout. More than 200 websites were blocked in Venezuela at the time of the earthquake, including news sites and social media platforms, limiting the flow of information available to both rescue coordinators and relatives abroad trying to locate family members. The UN’s Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela specifically urged authorities to “fully restore access to social networks and all media outlets”, stating that “timely access to reliable information and communication channels will be vital for the protection of the lives, safety, and well-being of the population” — framing information access as a matter of life and death in the search and rescue phase.
Venezuela Earthquake History and Seismic Risk Context in 2026
Venezuela Historical Major Earthquakes (1900–2026)
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1900 San Narciso |████████████████████████████████████████████████████| Mw 7.7 — northeast of Caracas (previous largest)
1967 Caracas |████████████████████████████████████████████████████| Mw 6.5 — 272 deaths; initiated seismic code reform
1989 Valencia |████████████ | M 6.0 — minor damage
2009 Morón |████████████ | M 5.1 — 18 injured
2024 June |████████████ | Several moderate aftershock events
2026 June 24 |████████████████████████████████████████████████████████| Mw 7.5 (doublet 7.2/7.5) — 235+ dead; 4,300+ injured
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Largest since 1900 | 80% of Venezuelan population in earthquake-prone areas (Al Jazeera)
Source: USGS; Wikipedia; Al Jazeera
| Historical Event | Magnitude | Deaths / Impact |
|---|---|---|
| 1900 San Narciso earthquake | Mw 7.7 | Northeast of Caracas; previous largest in Venezuela |
| 1967 Caracas earthquake | Mw 6.5 | 272 deaths; major building collapses; triggered seismic code reform |
| 1975 Valencia area | M 6.1 | Minor damage |
| 1989 Valencia | M 6.0 | Minor damage |
| 2009 Morón | ~M 5.1 | 18 injured; building damage |
| 2024 June (prior events) | Magnitude 6.1 (April 1975) | Historical comparison in Valencia area |
| 2026 June 24 doublet | Mw 7.2 + Mw 7.5 | 235+ dead; 4,300+ injured; 40,000+ missing (unconfirmed) |
| Population in quake-prone zones | ~80% of Venezuela | Al Jazeera, citing seismological data |
| 1967 reform impact | Seismic construction codes introduced | Buildings built pre-1967 have near-zero seismic resistance |
| Buildings on sediment (Caracas) | High proportion in Altamira and La Guaira | Ground amplification dramatically increases damage |
Source: USGS historical earthquake data; Wikipedia — 2026 Venezuela earthquakes; Al Jazeera June 25, 2026; NPR June 25, 2026
The 1967 Caracas earthquake (Mw 6.5) is Venezuela’s most comparable historical reference point for urban seismic destruction — 272 people were killed, primarily in building collapses, and the disaster triggered the introduction of formal seismic construction codes in Venezuela. That reform was consequential: buildings constructed to post-1967 code standards performed significantly better in the 2026 event than older stock. But decades of economic contraction under the Maduro government and the broader humanitarian crisis have meant that a large proportion of Venezuelan housing stock — including the informal settlements covering significant portions of Caracas’s hillsides and La Guaira’s waterfront — was built outside code compliance, with deferred maintenance accumulating on structures that were already marginal before the quake struck.
The doublet structure — two earthquakes of near-equal magnitude 39 seconds apart — is genuinely rare. Most earthquake sequences follow a pattern where the mainshock is substantially larger than subsequent aftershocks. When two comparably large events occur in near-immediate succession, the cumulative shaking duration and amplitude significantly exceeds what either event would produce alone. Structural engineering models account for a single design-level event, not a one-two sequence. Buildings that withstood the 7.2 foreshock with damaged but intact structural connections then faced the 7.5 mainshock with those connections already compromised — the engineering equivalent of striking a weakened beam twice rather than once.
International Response to Venezuela 2026 Earthquakes
International Aid Response — Venezuela June 2026 Earthquakes
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United States |████████████████████████████████████████████████████| $150M aid + 2 rescue teams (Fairfax VA + LA County)
Mexico |████████████████████████████████████████ | Rescue team + health personnel (SEDENA)
United Nations |████████████████████████████████████████ | $100M UN fund (via US contribution) + media access call
US SOUTHCOM |████████████████████████████████████████ | Aircraft + Maj. Gen. Jarrard deployed to Caracas
Australia |████████████████████ | Aid offer confirmed
Brazil |████████████████████ | Aid offer confirmed
El Salvador, DR |████████████████████ | Support and sympathy pledged
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US aid: $100M to UN fund + $50M to NGOs + military aircraft + USAR teams
Source: CNN; CNBC; ABC News; State Dept; Al Jazeera — June 25, 2026
| International Response Metric | Data |
|---|---|
| Total US aid pledged | $150 million |
| US contribution to UN humanitarian fund | $100 million |
| US contribution to aid organisations | $50 million |
| Fairfax County, Virginia USAR team | 80 personnel + 6 search dogs |
| LA County USAR team | 71 personnel + 6 search dogs |
| US military deployment | Maj. Gen. Kevin Jarrard (USMC) + SOUTHCOM aircraft |
| Mexico deployment | Rescue team + health personnel (SEDENA) |
| Countries offering support | Australia, Brazil, El Salvador, Dominican Republic + others |
| UN statement | Urgently called for full media access restoration |
| Secretary of State Marco Rubio statement | “Immediately deploying search and rescue teams, medical resources, and humanitarian assistance” |
| Trump statement | “Both massive in scale and have left a devastating number of deaths” |
| Venezuela acting president statement | Declared state of emergency; La Guaira disaster zone |
| Diplomatic context | US-Venezuela diplomatic opening following Trump’s Maduro raid in January 2026 |
Source: CNN live updates June 24–25, 2026; CNBC June 25, 2026; ABC News June 25, 2026; NPR June 25, 2026; US State Department; Al Jazeera June 25, 2026
The $150 million US aid pledge is the largest single-country donation in the immediate response and reflects a notable geopolitical dimension: Washington’s assistance comes more than five months after the Trump administration controversially sent forces to seize Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro from Caracas in January 2026. Acting President Delcy Rodríguez confirmed that US officials had been in constant contact with her administration since the earthquakes — a rapid diplomatic realignment driven by the scale of the humanitarian crisis. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s immediate public commitment framed the response as unambiguously humanitarian, and President Trump described the earthquakes as “both massive in scale” and endorsed a “rapid US response.”
The logistical challenges of the international response are profound. Venezuela’s general infrastructure — telecommunications, road networks, port capacity, fuel supply — was already severely degraded by a decade of economic contraction before the earthquake struck. Simón Bolívar International Airport’s closure complicates the deployment of international rescue teams and aid. The shortage of heavy rescue equipment in La Guaira — where volunteers 24 hours after the quake were still using their hands to clear rubble — is a direct product of chronic underfunding of civil protection services. A disaster relief expert quoted in the Northeastern University analysis said the earthquake is “a long-term effort that will take financial and technical help”, adding: “It’s all the more of an uphill struggle when you’re coming from a situation of very limited social services, very limited public infrastructure, and the financial and economic challenges that Venezuela has continued to experience.”
Venezuela Earthquake Economic Impact in 2026
Economic Impact Estimates — Venezuela June 2026 Earthquakes
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GDP impact forecast (Al Jazeera) |████████████████████████████████████████████████████| Up to 7% of Venezuela's GDP
USGS economic loss estimate |████████████████████████████████████████████████████| Billions to tens of billions USD
Venezuela pre-quake GDP (IMF est) |████████████████████████████████████████████████████| ~$90–100 billion (estimated, crisis economy)
7% of GDP loss |████████████████████████████████████████████████████| ~$6.3–7 billion USD
Poverty rate pre-quake |████████████████████████████████████████████████████| 82.8% (World Bank, 2023)
Buildings needing reconstruction |████████████████████████████████████████████████████| Unknown total; 100+ La Guaira alone
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USGS PAGER economic loss: "high" — billions to tens of billions
Source: Al Jazeera; USGS PAGER; World Bank; IMF Venezuela data
| Economic Metric | Data |
|---|---|
| Forecast economic damage (Al Jazeera) | Up to 7% of Venezuela’s GDP |
| USGS PAGER economic loss estimate | Billions to tens of billions of dollars |
| Venezuela poverty rate pre-earthquake (World Bank 2023) | 82.8% |
| Venezuela GDP (IMF estimate) | ~$90–100 billion (crisis-economy estimate) |
| 7% GDP loss implied | ~$6–7 billion USD |
| Hardest-hit economic zone | La Guaira — primary port for Caracas |
| Simón Bolívar Airport closure | Disrupts all air trade and tourism |
| Telecom infrastructure | Disabled in La Guaira immediately post-quake |
| Pre-existing context | Decade of economic crisis, hyperinflation, 7M+ emigration since 2015 |
| Building reconstruction timeline | “Long-term effort” — disaster relief expert, Northeastern University |
| Relief expert assessment | “All the more of an uphill struggle… very limited public infrastructure” |
| International aid pledged (to date) | $150M US + Mexico + regional countries |
Source: Al Jazeera, June 25, 2026; USGS PAGER system; World Bank Venezuela data; CNBC June 25, 2026; Northeastern University expert analysis June 25, 2026
A preliminary economic loss forecast cited by Al Jazeera placed the likely cost of the earthquakes at up to 7% of Venezuela’s GDP — a devastating figure for an economy that was already among the most contracted in the world before the quake struck. Venezuela’s poverty rate of 82.8% (World Bank, 2023 data) means the country has almost no economic buffer to absorb a reconstruction shock of this magnitude from domestic resources alone. The closure of Simón Bolívar International Airport — the country’s primary air gateway and a critical node for humanitarian supply chains — compounds the reconstruction challenge by restricting the speed at which international equipment, materials, and personnel can enter the country.
Venezuela had already experienced the emigration of more than 7 million people since 2015 — one of the largest displacement events in the Western Hemisphere — driven by economic collapse, political repression, and deteriorating public services. The earthquake arrives as a secondary catastrophe layered onto a pre-existing humanitarian emergency. The USGS seismologist’s characterisation of the doublet as something that “doesn’t happen very often” and the PAGER system’s explicit warning that the death toll “is likely to rise significantly” both point toward a final casualty picture that will take weeks to fully emerge. The earthquake of 24 June 2026 is, by seismological measures, the most significant natural disaster event in Venezuela in over a century — and by humanitarian measures, its full weight remains to be counted.
Disclaimer: The data research report we present here is based on information found from various sources. We are not liable for any financial loss, errors, or damages of any kind that may result from the use of the information herein. We acknowledge that though we try to report accurately, we cannot verify the absolute facts of everything that has been represented.
