El Salvador

Earthquakes in El Salvador through history

From 1900 to October 19, 2026, USGS recorded 72 earthquakes of magnitude 6 or more in or off El Salvador. 8 of them reached magnitude 7 or more; the strongest on either list was an estimated magnitude 7.9 on May 30, 1776.

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The last 30 days · as of

USGS recorded no earthquake of magnitude 4.5 or more in the area the map frames in the last 30 days.

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What the record holds

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. NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes has 53 here, back to AD 450. NOAA records deaths in 23 of the events here, 36,302 in all. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 5.6 on December 9, 2024 (2 km SSE of Conchagua, El Salvador). NOAA’s record here begins in AD 450 with an eruption (Ilopango). It grows thinner going back: 30 of the 53 significant earthquakes NOAA lists here are from 1927 on. NOAA lists 9 tsunamis that began in or off El Salvador. The highest water NOAA records here was 6.3 m, on August 27, 2012. The deadliest, on February 26, 1902, killed 100 people here by NOAA’s runup records. NOAA lists 6 significant eruptions of 4 volcanoes in or off El Salvador. The largest was Ilopango in AD 450, at 6 on the volcanic explosivity index. It killed 30,000 people by NOAA’s count.

The events

  • 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
  • October 10, 1986Earthquake · M 5.4San Salvador · 1,100 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
  • June 19, 1982Earthquake · M 7.318 km SSW of La Libertad, El Salvador · 43 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
  • May 6, 1951Earthquake · M 6.2Near Jucuapa, El Salvador · 1,100 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
  • September 7, 1915Earthquake · M 7.712 km NW of Chalatenango, El Salvador · 7 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI
  • February 26, 1902Tsunami · 2 m highEl Salvador-Guatemala · 100 deaths here (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
  • May 30, 1776Earthquake · M 7.9 (est.)NOAA NCEI
  • March 5, 1719Earthquake · M 7.6 (est.)San SalvadorNOAA NCEI
  • AD 450Eruption · VEI 6Ilopango · 30,000 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia

Good to know

  • An event counts for El Salvador when it began inside its borders, or at sea within 100 km of its coast (so one can count for two neighbours), or further out, up to 300 km, where El Salvador is the nearest country.
  • 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.
  • The map frames the box around El Salvador, its neighbours’ quakes included, so its count runs higher than this page’s.
  • 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

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