San Salvador Volcano
El Salvador, 13.73°N / -89.29°W
Current status: normal or dormant (1 out of 5)
San Salvador volcano is a massive stratovolcano immediately northwestwest of El Salvador city. Its modern summit cone is also called the Boqueron stratovolcano. It formed within a 6 km wide caldera left by the collapse of the predecessor volcano about 40,000 years ago. Remnants of the caldera rim form the Picacho and Jabalí peaks.
Boqueron volcano is truncated by a steep-walled, 500 m deep and 1500 m wide summit crater, which formed during a large eruption about 800 years ago. Before the last eruption in 1917, the crater of Boqueron contained a 400 m wide lake, which was replaced by a small, 30 m high young cinder cone, called Boqueroncito, built during the eruption along with a major lava flow on the north flank.
Most historical eruptions from San Salvador originated from flank vents.
San Salvador volcano eruptions: 1917, 1806 (?), 1671, 1658, 1572 ± 2, ?1200, 640 AD ± 30 years
Latest nearby earthquakes
Time | Mag. / Depth | Distance / Location | |||
May 5, 07:09 am (El Salvador) | 2.0 9 km | 27 km (17 mi) to the E | 15 km east of San Salvador, San Salvador, El Salvador | Info | |
Thursday, May 2, 2024 GMT (1 quake) | |||||
May 2, 11:43 am (El Salvador) | 1.9 11 km | 16 km (10.1 mi) to the W | 19 Km al sureste de Santa Ana, El Salvador | Info | |
Monday, April 29, 2024 GMT (1 quake) | |||||
Apr 28, 08:32 pm (El Salvador) | 1.9 6 km | 2.4 km (1.5 mi) to the E | 5 Km al norte de Santa Tecla, El Salvador | Info | |
Sunday, April 28, 2024 GMT (1 quake) | |||||
Apr 28, 06:21 am (El Salvador) | 2.5 5 km | 28 km (17 mi) to the E | 7 Km al oeste de Candelaria, El Salvador | Info | |
Thursday, April 25, 2024 GMT (1 quake) | |||||
Apr 25, 11:09 am (El Salvador) | 1.8 14 km | 10 Km al oeste de Santa Tecla, El Salvador | Info |
Background
The San Salvador or Quezaltepeque volcanic center formed in the southern part of the main graben of El Salvador and is dominantly andesitic. 3 fracture zones that extend beyond the base of San Salvador volcano have been the locus for numerous flank eruptions, including 2 that formed maars on the WNW and SE sides.Most of the 4 historical eruptions recorded since the 16th century have originated from flank vents, including two eruptions in the 17th century from the NW-flank cone of El Playón, during which explosions and a lava flow damaged inhabited areas.
Eruptions of San Salvador volcano
A small seismic swarm occurred in August 1999, when volcano-tectonic earthquakes about 5 km from the crater were detected. No other signs of unrest were noted.
The last eruption of San Salvador volcano began on 6 June 1917 following strong and destructive earthquakes lasting for 2 hours. The eruption consisted of an effusive fissure eruption on the NW flank followed by a moderately explosive summit eruption (similar, but smaller in scale, to the Eyafjallajökull eruption in 2010).
The effusive phase produced a large aa lava flow on the NW flank, left a row of cinder cones on the eruptive fissure, and lasted about a week. The second phase started simultaneously with the waning of the waning of the first phase from a fissure vent inside the summit crater. It quickly evaporated a former 400 m wide lake and built the small Boqueroncito cinder cone. ...more info