Earthquakes in El Salvador, 2017–2026
From 2017 to October 19, 2026, USGS recorded 362 earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 or more in or off El Salvador. The strongest was a magnitude 6.8 on June 22, 2017 (28 km SW of Puerto San José, Guatemala).
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.
What the record holds
The deadliest was not the strongest: a magnitude 6.6 on May 30, 2019 (32 km S of La Libertad, El Salvador), for which NOAA records one death. 5 earthquakes here in these years are on NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes. NOAA records deaths in 2 of the events here, 2 in all. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 5.6 on December 9, 2024 (2 km SSE of Conchagua, El Salvador).
The events
- January 5, 2025Earthquake · M 6.256 km SSE of La Libertad, El SalvadorUSGS
- December 9, 2024Earthquake · M 5.62 km SSE of Conchagua, El SalvadorUSGS · NOAA NCEI
- July 19, 2023Earthquake · M 6.543 km S of Intipucá, El SalvadorUSGS
- May 30, 2019Earthquake · M 6.632 km S of La Libertad, El Salvador · one death (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI
- June 22, 2017Earthquake · M 6.828 km SW of Puerto San José, GuatemalaUSGS · NOAA NCEI
- May 12, 2017Earthquake · M 6.278 km SSW of Acajutla, El SalvadorUSGS
- April 10, 2017Earthquake · M 4.84 km WSW of Tonacatepeque, El Salvador · one death (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI
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 are its ComCat catalogue’s earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 or more, aftershocks included.
- 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