Topos Azteca was founded after the 1985 Mexico City Earthquake which caused thousands of deaths. Beginning as a small, localized group of volunteers, Topos Azteca transformed into one of the most respected search-and-rescue organizations in the world. The organization quickly became prominent in searching for survivors and retrieving bodies from natural disasters. Rescuers split into teams and searched through different sections of the debris, allowing them to thoroughly check for survivors.
The back-to-back earthquakes in Venezuela killed more than 900 people and injured thousands. Only five kilometers apart, and separated by less than a minute, they to buildings and other structures. However, the earthquakes had been expected. Geologists and seismologists predicted that both the Boconó fault and the San Sebastián fault would cause earthquakes, as strain had been building on them since their previous earthquakes in 1812 and 1900.
