2001 El Salvador earthquake (First)
Date	January 13, 2001
Magnitude	7.6 Mw
Countries affected	El Salvador, Guatemala
Casualties	El Salvador: 844 fatalities, 4,723 injured Guatemala: 8 fatalities [1]

The 2001 El Salvador earthquakes were two earthquakes which hit El Salvador on January 13 and February 13, 2001, within exactly one month of each other. January 13 is the 13th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2001 (MMI) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The moment magnitude scale was introduced in 1979 by Tom Hanks and Hiroo Kanamori as a successor to the Richter scale and is used by seismologists to compare the energy released by earthquakes. ... January 13 is the 13th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... February 13 is the 44th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2001 (MMI) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

The January 13 earthquake

A landslide caused by the earthquake

At 17:33:32 UTC the 7.6 quake struck with the epicentre at 60 miles (100 km) SW of San Miguel, El Salvador (13.04N 88.66W) at the depth of 60 km. At least 844 people were killed, 4,723 injured, 108,226 houses destroyed and more than 150,000 buildings were damaged in El Salvador. About 585 of the deaths were caused by large landslides in Nueva San Salvador and Comasagua. Utilities and roads damaged by more than 16,000 landslides. Damage and injuries occurred in every department of El Salvador. Eight people were killed in Guatemala. The tremor was felt from Mexico City to Colombia. [2] Rockslide redirects here. ... San Miguel is: San Miguel is a town in San Luis Obispo County in California San Miguel is the name of a county in New Mexico San Miguel is the name of a town in the Philippine province of Leyte A city in Tabasco is called San Miguel The biggest... Rockslide redirects here. ... Santa Tecla is a municipality in the La Libertad department of El Salvador. ... Comasagua is a municipality in the La Libertad department of El Salvador. ... Nickname: Ciudad de los Palacios Location of Mexico City in central Mexico Coordinates: Country Mexico Federal entity Federal District Boroughs The 16 delegaciones Founded (as Tenochtitlan) c. ...

2001 El Salvador earthquake (Second)
Date	February 13, 2001
Magnitude	6.6 Mw
Countries affected	El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras
Casualties	El Salvador: 315 fatalities

February 13 is the 44th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2001 (MMI) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The moment magnitude scale was introduced in 1979 by Tom Hanks and Hiroo Kanamori as a successor to the Richter scale and is used by seismologists to compare the energy released by earthquakes. ...

The February 13 earthquake

At 14:22:05 UTC, the 6.6 quake struck with the epicentre at 15 miles (30 km) E of San Salvador, El Salvador (13.67N 88.93W) at the depth of 10 km. At least 315 people were killed, 3,399 injured and extensive damage. The most severe damage occurred in the San Juan Tepezontes-San Vicente-Cojutepeque area. Landslides occurred in many areas of El Salvador. Felt throughout El Salvador and in Guatemala and Honduras. San Salvador is the capital city of the nation of El Salvador. ...

Quakes mechanism

The earthquakes occurred within the Cocos-Caribbean subduction zone. El Salvador sits atop the western part of the Carribbean plate, where it is overriding (subducting) the Cocos plate. Subduction zones such as this are geologically very complex and produce numerous earthquakes from multiple sources. Shallow intraplate (crustal) earthquakes occur within the crust of the overriding Caribbean plate. Deeper intraplate earthquakes occur within the subducting Cocos plate. The earthquake sequence in the El Salvador region has involved intraplate faulting in both the Cocos and Caribbean plates, with the largest earthquake in the sequence (January 13) occurring in the lower (Cocos) plate. The February 13 earthquake was a strong, shallow intraplate earthquake, occurring within the crust of the overlying Caribbean plate. This earthquake was a strike-slip faulting earthquake, which likely occurred in response to the complicated stresses in the Caribbean plate as it overrides the Cocos plate. It was about 85 km away from the 13 January magnitude 7.7 earthquake and about 30 km shallower.

These two earthquakes occurred in two different plates. The occurrence of any large earthquake changes the stresses throughout the surrounding region. Aftershocks occur in response to these changes. Occasionally, other earthquakes will occur in response to the altered regional stresses. While not technically aftershocks, these earthquakes are related, becoming part of a regional earthquake sequence.

Another example of a regional earthquake sequence is the 1992 Landers-Big Bear sequence in southern California. The magnitude 7.3 Landers earthquake was followed by the magnitude 6.4 Big Bear earthquake, which occurred on a different fault approximately 36 km away. [3] 1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday. ... Official language(s) English Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Area  Ranked 3rd  - Total 158,302 sq mi (410,000 km²)  - Width 250 miles (400 km)  - Length 770 miles (1,240 km)  - % water 4. ...

External links

• First quake (USGS)
• Second quake (USGS)