An Earthquake Catalogue for El Salvador and Neighboring Central American Countries （1528-2009） and Its Implication in the Seismic Hazard Assessment

Merging all available databases, a comprehensive and updated earthquake catalogue for El Salvador and surrounding areas has been compiled, containing a total of 2,584 events for the period 1528-2009, covering the geographic window delimited by the coordinates 11.0°-16.5° N and 85.5°-92.0° W, focal depths of 0.0 to 304 km, and the moment magnitudes in the interval 5.0 〈 Mw 〈 8.1. Events in the catalogue are distributed into six seismogenic sources taking into consideration the tectonic regime affecting E1 Salvador, the interplay and complexities between shallow crustal, intraplate and interface subduction seismicity has been thoroughly investigated, primarily with the aim of developing detail criteria to delimit the seismogenic sources in order to perform a consistent seismic hazard assessment. A uniform hazard spectrum for San Salvador and seismic hazard maps and their uncertainty have been calculated for the horizontal component of ground motion for rock site conditions using zone and zone free methods. The references cited in the article constitute a comprehensive list of sources of information on the tectonics and seismicity of El Salvador and neighboring Central American countries.