It is known that this earthquake is larger than the magnitude 7.5 1812 Caracas earthquake, but was far less destructive. With a magnitude of 7.7. on both the surface wave and moment magnitude scales, it is the largest instrumentally recorded earthquake in Venezuela. The NGDC list this earthquake as having a surface wave magnitude of 8.4 while a 1983 catalog places this figure at 7.7. Charles Francis Richter also assigned the earthquake at 8.4 in his 1958 book "Elementary seismology". In a 1992 catalog by Pacheco and Sykes and a 2020 study on the coseismic effects, this event was 7.6.