Name: June 19, 1982 Earthquake: San Salvador, Guatemala, El Salvador
Start: 1982-06-19
Location: San Salvador, Guatemala, El Salvador

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 19, 1982
Time: 06:21:58 UTC
Place: San Salvador, Guatemala, El Salvador
Magnitude: 7.3 (Mw)
Magnitude scales: Mw 7.3 · Ms 7.3 · mb 6.2
Focal depth: 73 km (45 mi)
Intensity: VII, very strong shaking, on the Modified Mercalli scale
Tsunami: None recorded
Epicenter: 13.332° N, 89.387° W
Country: El Salvador
Region: Central America
USGS record: The USGS’s page for this earthquake

Mw: moment magnitude, based on the slip on the fault and the area that slipped. Ms: surface-wave magnitude. mb: body-wave (P-wave) magnitude. NCEI’s headline magnitude is the best of these for the earthquake.

The toll

Deaths: 43
Injuries: Many (about 101 to 1,000)
Damage: $5 million

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.

From Wikipedia

The 1982 El Salvador earthquake occurred southeast of San Salvador on 19 June at 00:21 local time (06:21 UTC). This undersea earthquake struck offshore in the Pacific Ocean and had a surface wave magnitude of 7.3 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of VII (Very strong). Occurring adjacent to a subduction zone at the Middle America Trench, this normal-slip shock left at least 16 and as many as 43 people dead, and many injured, and also inflicted $5 million in damage.

Text from Wikipedia, “1982 El Salvador earthquake”, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Quoted as written; the full article has the rest.

What happened

The USGS’s account of the effects of this earthquake.

At least 40 people killed, many injured, and thousands of people left homeless in El Salvador. Extensive damage (VII) and landslides south of San Salvador including some damage in San Salvador. Three people killed, 40 injured, and considerable damage in southeastern Guatemala. Felt in Costa Rica, Honduras, and Nicaragua. FAULT PLANE SOLUTION: P-WAVES NP1:STRIKE=315;DIP=85;SLIP=240 NP2:STRIKE=216;DIP=30;SLIP=350 PRINCIPAL AXES (T): PLG=33;AZM=70 (P): PLG=42;AZM=197 COMMENT: Moderately well controlled normal fault type mechanism with a small amount of left-lateral strike-slip component. NP1 designated as the fault plane. CENTROID, MOMENT TENSOR SOLUTION HARVARD EVENT-FILE NAME C061982A DATA USED: GDSN L.P. BODY WAVES: 15S, 44C, T=45 MANTLE WAVES: 12S, 33C, T=135 CENTROID LOCATION: ORIGIN TIME 6:22: 2.3 0.2 LAT 12.65N 0.02;LON 88.97W 0.02 DEP 51.9 0.9;HALF-DURATION 13.0 MOMENT TENSOR; SCALE 10**26 D-CM MRR=-7.45 0.12; MTT=7.15 0.11 MFF=0.30 0.10; MRT=5.77 0.21 MRF=-3.72 0.18; MTF=-3.20 0.10 PRINCIPAL AXES: 1.(T) VAL=10.90;PLG=20;AZM=24 2.(N) -0.81; 7; 116 3.(P) -10.09; 69; 224 BEST DOUBLE COUPLE:M0=1.0*10**27 NP1:STRIKE=102;DIP=25;SLIP=-106 NP2:Strike=299;Dip=66;Slip=-83

From the USGS event page for iscgem597450. U.S. Geological Survey text and figures are in the public domain.

Magnitude estimates

The magnitudes the USGS catalog lists for this earthquake, by scale and by who computed them. NCEI’s own scales are in the table above.

Mag.	Scale	Computed by	Notes
7.29	Mw, moment	ISC-GEM global catalog	Preferred · Final · ±0.1
6.2	mb, body-wave	USGS National Earthquake Information Center	Reviewed · 71 stations
7.3	Mwc, centroid moment	Global CMT project	Preliminary

What the record says

NCEI’s account, from the sources it cites.

At least 40 people killed, many injured, and thousands of people left homeless in El Salvador. Extensive damage (VII) and landslides south of San Salvador including some damage in San Salvador. Three people killed, 40 injured, and considerable damage in southeastern Guatemala. Felt in Costa Rica, Honduras, and Nicaragua. (reference #1053)

$5 million damage. (reference #1250)

VII: southern La Libertad province (S). few homes fell; 40 dead; 8 aftershocks to 7/06 [25 s]. (reference #14066)

1982-06-19 06:21:58.54 UTC, 13.332 N 89.387 W, magnitude 7.29 Mw (reference #10476, v.11)

Sources NCEI cites

The publications NCEI lists for this record. The numbers match the “reference #” notes in its account above.

#459 International Tsunami Information Center (1968 - present). Tsunami Newsletter. Honolulu, Hawaii, USA [published periodically, 1968-present].
#1232 International Seismological Centre (1964-1990). Regional Catalogue of Earthquakes, 1964-1990, Edinburgh, Scotland.
#1053 National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC) (1971 to 2013). Preliminary Determination of Epicenters (PDE), a weekly and monthly publication, National Earthquake Information Center, U.S. Geological Survey, Golden, Colorado, 1971 to 2013.
#14066 White, R. A., Ligorriia, J. P., and Cifuentes, I. L. (2004). Seismic history of the Middle America subduction zone along El Salvador, Guatemala, and Chiapas, Mexico: 1526–2000, in Rose, W.I., Bommer, J.J., Lopez, D.L., Carr, M.J., and Major, J.J., eds., Natural hazards in El Salvador: Boulder, Colorado, Geological Society of America Special Paper 375, p. 379-396.
#10476 International Seismological Centre (2013). Final Scientific Report of the ISC-GEM Instrumental Earthquake Catalogue, ISC-GEM Global Instrumental earthquake Catalogue (1900-2021). Versions 1-12 downloaded beginning 18 March 2013. DOI: 10.31905/D808B825

Other significant earthquakes nearby

Within 200 km, the deadliest first.

More

Significant earthquakes of 1982 The 1900s Every quake the USGS located in 1982 Recent earthquakes near here This 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 2026-10-01. NCEI earthquake 4945. The written accounts and the magnitude estimates are from the USGS earthquake catalog, event iscgem597450, matched to this record by time, place and magnitude.