M4.8 Earthquake hit in the North Pacific Ocean near San Miguel (El Salvador) on Sunday Afternoon.

Written by Earthquakelist.org on July 23rd, 2023. Last updated September 21st, 2023.

A Magnitude 4.8 earthquake struck in the North Pacific Ocean 78 kilometer from San Miguel, El Salvador in the early afternoon of Sunday July 23rd, 2023. Honduras, Nicaragua and Guatemala are also near its epicenter.

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Earthquake Summary

This earthquake hit under water in the North Pacific Ocean, 42 kilometers (26 mi) off the coast of El Salvador, 78 kilometer south of San Miguel. The center of this earthquake had an intermediate depth of 77 km.

Date and Time:	Jul 23, 2023 01:37PM (El Salvador Time) - Jul 23, 2023 19:37 Universal Time.
Location:	78 km south of San Miguel, El Salvador. Coordinates 12°46'54"N 88°15'17"W.
Map:	Map of area around epicenter. Click to open in Google Maps.
Magnitude:	MAG 4.8 Detected by 34 stations. Maximum Error Range ±0.053 .
Depth:	77 km (48 mi) An intermediate depth.
Tsunami Risk:	Low tsunami risk Earthquakes under MAG-6.5 do not usually cause tsunami's. Always stay cautious - More info here.

Nearby towns and cities

This earthquake struck within proximity of multiple countries. El Salvador , Honduras , Nicaragua and Guatemala are all within 300km distance of its epicenter.

Located 64 kilometer (40 mi) south-southeast of the epicenter of this earthquake, Puerto El Triunfo (Usulután, El Salvador) is the nearest significant population center.

Multiple large cities are in proximity of today's earthquake. Tegucigalpa is located 184 km to the north-east. Managua is located 229 km to the east-southeast. San Salvador is located 143 km to the northwest.

An overview of nearby towns and cities is available in the overview below.

Overview of nearby places

Shaking reported by 1 person

People that feel an earthquake may report their experience to the US Geographic Survey. Currently, 1 person has reported shaking in one place in El Salvador.We keep updating this article as more ground reports become available. You may report that you felt this earthquake here.

Places with most reports:

• San Miguel, San Miguel, El Salvador: 1 person.

37 Aftershocks detected

This main shock was followed by 37 smaller aftershocks. Just 9 hrs after this main shock, an earthquake measuring MAG-4.2 was detected 12 km (7 mi) southwest of this earthquake.

This main shock was prefaced by 53 smaller foreshocks. Nearby this earthquake a foreshock struck 2 days earlier. It measured a magnitude of 4.2

Overview of foreshocks and aftershocks

More earthquakes coming?

The risk of aftershocks decreases rapidly over time. Usually, aftershocks are at least one order of magnitude lower than a main shock.

In only six percent of cases, significant earthquakes are followed by a larger main shock, making the current earthquake a foreshock. While the chance of this happening is not so large, it is adviced to maintain cautiousness in the hours and days following a major earthquake.

Earthquakes like this happen often in the region

Earthquakes of this strength are very common in the region. This is the strongest earthquake to hit since July 19th, 2023, when a 5 magnitude earthquake hit 8 km (5 mi) further north-east. An even stronger magnitude 7.3 earthquake struck on October 14th, 2014.

In total, 286 earthquakes with a magnitude of 4.8 or higher have been registered within 300km (186 mi) of this epicenter in the past 10 years. This comes down to an average of once every 13 days.

Low tsunami risk

Based on early data it appears this earthquake was not strong enough (lower than MAG-6.5) to be likely to cause destructive tsunami's. However this earthquake appeared to have hit at a shallow depth under sea, so stay cautious and monitor advice from local authorities.

Tsunami Risk Factors

Sources

Last updated 21/09/23 13:37 (). This article contains currently available information about the earthquake and is automatically composed. We continue to update this article up to a few days after the earthquake occurred.

1. US Geographic Society (USGS): Earthquake us7000khus
2. European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC): Earthquake 20230723_0000174
3. Geonames.org: World Cities Database
4. Google Maps: Static API
5. Earthquakelist.org: Historic Earthquakes Database

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