El Salvador

Earthquakes in El Salvador, 1927–2026

From 1927 to October 19, 2026, USGS recorded 60 earthquakes of magnitude 6 or more in or off El Salvador. 5 of them reached magnitude 7 or more; the strongest was a magnitude 7.7 on January 13, 2001 (28 km SSW of Puerto El Triunfo, El Salvador).

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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. 30 earthquakes here in these years are on NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes. NOAA records deaths in 15 of the events here, 3,947 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 lists 4 tsunamis that began in or off El Salvador. The highest water NOAA records here was 6.3 m, on August 27, 2012. NOAA lists one significant eruption of one volcano in or off El Salvador. The largest was Santa Ana on October 1, 2005, at 3 on the volcanic explosivity index. It killed 2 people by NOAA’s count.

The events

  • December 9, 2024Earthquake · M 5.62 km SSE of Conchagua, El SalvadorUSGS · NOAA NCEI
  • October 14, 2014Earthquake · M 7.374 km S of Intipucá, El Salvador · one death (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
  • August 27, 2012Earthquake · M 7.3126 km S of Puerto El Triunfo, El SalvadorUSGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
  • August 27, 2012Tsunami · 6.3 m hereEl Salvador-NicaraguaNOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
  • October 1, 2005Eruption · VEI 3Santa Ana · 2 deaths (NOAA)NOAA 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
  • May 21, 1932Earthquake · M 7.112 km S of Conchagua, El Salvador · 5 deaths (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 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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