Editing El Salvador (section)

====Earthquakes and volcanic activity====
[[File:Vulkan Chaparrastique, El Salvador 2013 01.JPG|thumb|[[San Miguel (volcano)|San Miguel]] volcano in 2013]]
El Salvador lies along the Pacific [[Ring of Fire]] and is thus subject to significant tectonic activity, including frequent [[earthquake]]s and [[volcano|volcanic]] activity. The capital San Salvador was destroyed in 1756 and 1854, and it suffered heavy damage in the 1919, 1982, and 1986 tremors. Recent examples include the earthquake on 13 January 2001 that measured 7.7 on the [[Richter magnitude scale]] and caused a [[landslide]] that killed more than 800 people;<ref name="tdfiyp">{{cite web |url=https://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1109.html |title=El Salvador landslide |publisher=Travel.state.gov |access-date=2 May 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100510070619/http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1109.html |archive-date=10 May 2010 }}</ref> and another earthquake only a month later, on 13 February 2001, that killed 255 people and damaged about 20% of the country's housing. A [[Moment magnitude scale|5.7 M<sub>w</sub>]] earthquake in 1986 resulted in 1,500 deaths, 10,000 injuries, and 100,000 people left homeless.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Harlow|first=David H.|year=1993|title=The San Salvador earthquake of 10 October 1986 and its historical context|url=http://bssa.geoscienceworld.org/content/83/4/1143.abstract|journal=Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America|volume=83|issue=4|pages=1143–1154|doi=10.1785/BSSA0830041143|bibcode=1993BuSSA..83.1143H|s2cid=130882786|access-date=29 July 2012|archive-date=13 October 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121013005411/http://bssa.geoscienceworld.org/content/83/4/1143.abstract|url-status=live|url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1 = Bommer|first1=Julian|year=1987|title=The San Salvador earthquake of 10th October 1986|journal=Disasters|volume=11 |issue=2|pages=83–95|doi=10.1111/j.1467-7717.1987.tb00620.x|last2=Ledbetter|first2=Stephen|bibcode=1987Disas..11...83B }}</ref>

El Salvador has over twenty volcanoes; two of them, San Miguel and [[Izalco (volcano)|Izalco]], have been active in recent years. From the early 19th century to the mid-1950s, Izalco erupted with a regularity that earned it the name "Lighthouse of the Pacific". Its brilliant flares were clearly visible for great distances at sea, and at night its glowing lava turned it into a brilliant luminous cone. The most recent destructive volcanic eruption took place on 1 October 2005, when the [[Santa Ana Volcano]] spewed a cloud of ash, hot mud and rocks that fell on nearby villages and caused two deaths. The most severe volcanic eruption in this area occurred in the 5th century AD when the [[Lake Ilopango|Ilopango]] volcano erupted with a [[Volcanic Explosivity Index|VEI]] strength of 6, producing widespread [[pyroclastic flow]]s and devastating [[Maya civilization|Mayan cities]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Dull|first=Robert A.|year=2001|title=Volcanism, Ecology and Culture: A Reassessment of the Volcan Ilopango Tbj eruption in the Southern Maya Realm|journal=Latin American Antiquity|volume=12 |issue=1|pages=25–44|doi=10.2307/971755|author2=Southon|author3=Sheets|jstor=971755|s2cid=163686184}}</ref>