M 5.6 in El Salvador on 09 Dec 2024 03:50 UTC

Event summary

This earthquake can have a low humanitarian impact based on the magnitude and the affected population and their vulnerability.

GDACS ID EQ 1456730
Earthquake Magnitude: 5.6M
Depth: 15.4 Km
Lat/Lon: 13.2206 , -87.875
Event Date: 09 Dec 2024 03:50 UTC
08 Dec 2024 21:50 Local
Exposed Population: 10 thousand (in MMI>=VII)
Inserted at: 09 Dec 2024 04:03 UTC
INFORM Coping capacity:
5.2 (El Salvador)
INFORM Coping capacity list: Honduras= 5.2; El Salvador= 4.6

GDACS Score

For more info on GDACS alert score click here.
  Earthquake
(Shakemap)		 GDACS score
NEIC 0.9 0.9
us7000nx79 Scaled population (raster) 2.93  
  C1 shakemap -0.59  
  C2 shakemap 0.53  
  Country Vulnerability 0  
  INFORM_normalised 0.94  
Maximum expected impact using different data sources.
Virtual OSOCC
Meteo assessment
Satellite products
Analytical products
El Salvador - Earthquake (ECHO 14 Dec 2024)Mon, 09 Dec 2024 11:34

  • An earthquake of 5.6 M at a depth of 15.4 km occurred in La Unión department in eastern El Salvador on 9 December at 3:50 UTC (8 December at 21:50 local time). The epicentre was 9 km south of the Conchagua district, La Unión Department.
  • USGS PAGER estimated that up to 12,000 people were exposed to very strong shaking and 97,000 to strong shaking.  
  • According to media reports, as of 9 December, the earthquake was felt even in the neighbouring Honduras capital Tegucigalpa and in Nicaragua. There are no initial reports of casualties or damage and no tsunami warning was triggered.
Detailed event map. European Union, 2025. Map produced by EC-JRC.
The boundaries and the names shown on this map do not imply official endorsement or acceptance by the European Union.

Updates on volcanic activity (Smithsonian)

Latest media headlines

Tremors continue to shake El Salvador 12/12/2024 9:50:00 PM.

The phenomenon is caused by geological faults in this area. By 6:00 am Thursday (local time), seismographs reported 621 tremors in the district of Conchagua and surrounding areas, in the department of La Union, in the aftermath of an earthq
...(more)
Moderate mag. 4.0 earthquake - North Pacific Ocean, 143 km south of Sa.. 12/12/2024 6:52:00 AM.

Nearby places The closest larger town where the quake might have been felt is La Libertad , a town with 17,000 inhabitants in El Salvador , in 117 km (73 mi) distance north of the epicenter. People likely experienced very weak shaking there
...(more)
Magnitude 5.6 quake hits El Salvador 12/10/2024 8:12:00 AM.

San Salvador, Dec. 10 (BNA): A magnitude 5.6 earthquake struck some 9 km (6 miles) south-west of La Union in El Salvador, the Euro-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) said late on Sunday. Salvadoran civil protection authorities said t
...(more)
5.6 Magnitude Earthquake Shakes El Salvador and Nearby Regions 12/9/2024 7:15:00 PM.

A magnitude 5.6 earthquake struck El Salvador on Sunday at 9:50 PM local time. The epicenter was located 9 km south of the Conchagua district in La Unión Department, about 180 km southeast of San Salvador. The United States Geological Surve
...(more)

View more news

Estimated casualties (PAGER)

USGS estimates the number of casualties for each earthquake for the Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response (PAGER) product.
The graph shows the current fatalities estimate.

Exposed population

Data, images, links, services and documents

For this events, GDACS has links to information from the following sources: EC-JRC (48), (3), NEIC (4), OCHA (1), INGV (1), DesInventar (1), WMO (1), USGS (5), INFORM (2),