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THE SA~ SALVADOR EARTHQCAKE OF OCTOBER 19, 1986

VITEL~O V. B[RTERO
University of California, Berkeley
Professor of Civil Engineering

I~'TRODUCTION

I~'TRODt.:CTORY RE:'\lARKS REGARDI~G SAl': SALVADOR: GEOGRAPHY k~D

HISTORY
On October I 0, 1986 a destructive eanhquake occurred in the metropolitan area of San
Salvador. San Salvador is the capital city of El Salvador which is located in the center of
Central American, and is the only Central American country with no Atlantic coast (Figure
1). It is surrounded by the Pacific Ocean and three countries: Guatemala, Honduras, and
Nicaragua. El Salvador is geographically not large, the smallest of all the Central American
countries, with an area of only 21,156 square kilometers (8172 square miles), i.e. approxi-
mately one-twentieth of the area of California. It is a mountainous country crossed by two
main mountain ranges, the Sierra Madre in the Nonh and the Cadena Costera in the South.
Between these two chains of mountains which rise from the floor of a high plateau there are
fenile valleys with numerous volcanoes (Figure 2). The high plateau slopes westward dov.-n to
a low coastal plain with an average width of about fifteen miles.
El Salvador has twenty-five volcanoes with the hig..1est rising more than 2430 meters
(8000 feet). Several of these have erupted at least once since 1600 and one, Iz.alco, was
formed at the beginning of the 18th century and since then bas been almost continuously
active. El Salvador has excellent fenile soil and most of the country is cultivated, with princi-
pal crops of coffee, cotton, and sugar cane. The population of El Salvador is 5,235,700, of
whom 2~391~ 100 are younger than fifteen years old. It is the most thickly populated country
of Central America with a density of nearly 250 inhabitants per square kilometer. El Salva-
dor once had a well-developed educational system, providing free and compulsory education.
Its development and prosperity have been handicapped. however, by numerous wars with
other Central American countries and lately, since 1979, by a civil war.
The population of metropolitan San Salvador exceeds 1,000,000. The capital, founded
in 1528. is located in the central valley (or plateau) with a height of about 700 meters (2300
feet) above sea level at about 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) from the Pacific coast and between
the San Salvador (Boqueron) and San Vicente volcanoes.

OBJECTIVES AND SCOPE

The main objective of this report is to describe the performance of buildings during the
October 10, 1986 earthquake and to discuss the primary reasons for this performance and
recommend measures for the mitigation of hazards in future earthquakes. The report starts
with a brief description of the seismic history of San Salvador, and of the geology and seismi-
city of the country. Then the main characteristics of the 10 October 1986 eanhquake are
described, followed by a discussion of the effects of the ground motions from the earthquake,
particularly emphasizing the performance of buildings and the primary reasons for this
observed performance. The soundness of building codes used in the design of the modern
structures in San Salvador is analyzed in detail and compared with present U.S. building code
regulations for earthquake-resistant design. The report ends with recommendations for the
mitigation of earthquake hazards.