June 2, 1575 Earthquake: San Marcos, El Salvador
An earthquake struck San Marcos, El Salvador on June 2, 1575.
Map
Where it struck, with the other significant earthquakes within 200 km. Circles are sized and colored by magnitude; select one for its page.
The earthquake
- Date
- June 2, 1575
- Place
- San Marcos, El Salvador
- Intensity
- 8 on the Modified Mercalli scale
- Tsunami
- None recorded
- Epicenter
- 13.700° N, 89.200° W
- Country
- El Salvador
The toll
- Damage
- Extreme (about $25 million or more)
- Houses destroyed
- Many (101 to 1,000)
Where the literature gives no number, NCEI records a description on a scale of 1 to 4, printed here in its words. Damage is in millions of US dollars of the year of the event, not adjusted for inflation.
What the record says
NCEI’s account, from the sources it cites.
1576 May 23. Complete destruction of the city [San Salvador]. Epicenter between San Marcos and Santo Tomas. (reference #1554)
1575 June 02 (reference #124)
The city suffered heavy damage for the first time in an earthquake on 2 June 1575 (Grases, 1990) or 23 May 1576 (Montessus de Ballore, 1888). We have found a contemporary document in which this earthquake is mentioned. The document is a letter of King Philip II, dated 18 November 1576, to Dr. Villalobos, President of the Audiencia of Guatemala, in answer to his letters of 7 October 1575 and 15 March 1576 . The King approved the measures taken to help the population after the earthquake and ordered that the help continue. The date given by Montessus de Ballore cannot be right, because the earthquake must have happened before October 1575. (reference #14061)
1575 June 02. VIII: San Salvador, Sierra Texacuangos towns. (5/23?) 1st major earthquake here; all houses fell (reference #14066)
Other significant earthquakes nearby
Within 200 km, the deadliest first.
- February 4, 1976, Chimaltenango, Guatemala City
- December 26, 1917, Guatemala City
- April 19, 1902, Quezaltenango, San Marcos, Guatemala
- October 10, 1986, San Salvador, El Salvador
- May 6, 1951, Jucuapa, El Salvador
- April 14, 1854, San Salvador, El Salvador
- January 13, 2001, El Salvador, Guatemala
- March 4, 1873, Santa Tomas, San Vicente, El Salvador
- June 3, 1773, St. Jago, Guatemala
- December 19, 1936, San Vicente, El Salvador
- February 13, 2001, San Juan Tepezontes-San Vicente-Cojutep, El Salvador
- April 11, 1873, Salvador,san Vicente, El Salvador
- September 3, 1874, Antigua,chimaltenango,amatitlan, Guatemala
- February 26, 1902, El Salvador-Guatemala
- May 3, 1965, San Marcos, El Salvador
More
Significant earthquakes of 1575The 1500sRecent earthquakes near hereThis day in weather history
Sources
Significant earthquakes from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, Global Historical Hazard Database, cited as NCEI/WDS, doi:10.7289/V5PN93H7. Public domain. Read 2026-09-24. NCEI earthquake 6878.