Earthquakes near San Miguel, 1927–2026

The deadliest was not the strongest: a magnitude 6.2 on May 6, 1951 (Near Jucuapa, El Salvador), for which NOAA records 1,100 deaths. 18 earthquakes here in these years are on NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes. NOAA records deaths in 9 of the events here, 2,712 in all. The ten years with the most magnitude 6+ earthquakes were 1997–2006, with 6 of the 20. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 5.6 on December 9, 2024 (2 km SSE of Conchagua, El Salvador). NOAA lists one tsunami that began within 100 km of San Miguel, and 2 from elsewhere that reached it with deaths or a metre of water or more. The highest water NOAA records here was 6.3 m, on August 27, 2012. The deadliest here came on September 2, 1992 from a magnitude 7.6 earthquake (Nicaragua): NOAA’s runup records count 3 deaths within 100 km of San Miguel. NOAA lists one significant eruption of one volcano within 100 km of San Miguel.

• December 9, 2024Earthquake · M 5.62 km SSE of Conchagua, El SalvadorUSGS · NOAA NCEI
• August 27, 2012Tsunami · 6.3 m hereEl Salvador-NicaraguaNOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• January 13, 2001Earthquake · M 7.728 km SSW of Puerto El Triunfo, El Salvador · 844 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• September 2, 1992Tsunami · 6.18 m hereNicaragua · 3 deaths here (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• June 19, 1982Earthquake · M 7.318 km SSW of La Libertad, El Salvador · 43 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• August 3, 1951EruptionCosiguinaNOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• May 6, 1951Earthquake · M 6.2Near Jucuapa, El Salvador · 1,100 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia

• An event counts for San Miguel when it began within 100 km of its centre, or 200 km for an earthquake of magnitude 7 or more. Damage can reach further.
• USGS counts here start at magnitude 6: the catalogue’s smaller quakes thin out going back, where few instruments listened.
• NOAA lists significant events only: earthquakes that killed, did about $1 million of damage, reached magnitude 7.5 or intensity X, or raised a tsunami, and eruptions and tsunamis by like measures. Magnitudes before 1900 are its estimates from written accounts.
• Deaths are NOAA’s total for each event, wherever people died, its tsunami and fires included. A tsunami counts the dead its runup records give for this place: NOAA’s total for a tsunami includes its source quake’s.
• A tsunami from elsewhere counts where one of its runups killed or rose a metre or more.
• Counted to October 19, 2026, as is the map. The last 30 days ask USGS again.

How the layers work, where their data comes from and what they can’t tell you: Earthquakes, live, The world through history