Plate Boundaries
El Salvador is one of the most active, earthquake vulnerable areas in the Western Hemisphere. The country is in between two active tectonic plate movements. On the southern part of El Salvador, Coco's plates pushes under the Caribbean Plate, which causes frequent earthquakes near the coast. As the ocean floor is forced down, the rocks melt, and that causes volcanoes and geysers. On the northern side of El Salvador, the North American Tectonic Plate pushes one edge of the Caribbean Plate, creating a major fault. This fault causes earthquakes in the northern part of El Salvador. There are three seismic source, intra-slab earthquakes within Coco's plate, crustal earthquakes within the upper plates, and interplate earthquakes along the boundary. 10 of the 16 earthquakes damaging to San Salvador are associated with the volcanic belt, and the other 6 to Coco's plate. El Salvador has more "Ring of Fire" volcanoes than any other central american country.
Lifeline Performance of El Salvador Earthquakes of January 13 and February 13, 2001 (Google Books)
- "IGCSE Plate Tectonics and GCSE Plate Tectonics."Greenfieldgeography.03Sept2015
- "El Salvador."Nationalencyclopedia.03sept2015
Great entry!-you are right that this country has a complicated tectonic setting and therefore, lots of activity (volcanic arcs). You'll dig in a bit deeper about earthquakes next week. See what your classmates' countries relate to yours!
ReplyDeleteJoselin,
ReplyDeleteThis is very interesting information you posted about your country. El Salvador seems to have a lot of activity involvement between the two tectonic plates. For example, how you stated, “the ocean floor is forced down, and the rocks melt, which causes volcanoes and geysers,” helps me understand the steps for how these events take place. I also like the idea of pacing a map as a visual reference as this really helped me capture your points. Thanks for sharing.
Donna
Donna: Including images and maps is easy and useful to illustrate what you write about for sure!-check the guide link I posted last week to help you if you want to try-Ana
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ReplyDeleteHey Joselin, I really enjoyed your post. I always knew that El Salvador was vulnerable to earthquakes, but I never understood why. Your information definitely helped my understand why El Salvador is one of the most active places in the western Hemisphere. I definitely learned a lot just from reading this post.
ReplyDeleteJoselin,
ReplyDeleteI have to be honest with you I was dying to choose El Salvador for this semester considering most of my family still reside there. However, I choose Guatemala considering it was no longer available, which I have no problem with since I would love to learn more about a country I know not much about. I will be looking into your blog mostly throughout the semester because I just adore the country that much, and their is climate/ geology will definitely keep you busy. Not only that, but both of our chosen countries are neighbors and even share (partially) the same plate boundaries and regions. Maybe we can collaborate with one another's countries throughout this course!
I have included my blog so we can stay connected!
Ayla Parada
http://aylaparada.blogspot.com/
Hey, my family is from El Salvador as well that's why I was quick to pick! I haven't been there but I already love it,,, Awesome i'd be glad to collaborate :)
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