El Salvador Final Assessment 

El Salvador is known as the Land of Volcanoes. The first main hazard I consider to be the most dangerous would be volcanoes. El Salvador has experiences significant volcanic activity. Although the last eruption was in 1917, volcano San Salvador has the potential to cause major harm to the country’s capital. The capital lies just below the volcano’s slopes. Volcano San Salvador has an elevation of 1,893 m. Volcano San Miguel  last erupted in 2002 and is one of the most active volcanoes in the country, it has an elevation of 2,120 m. Other active volcanoes include Conchaguita, Ilopango, Izalco, and Santa Ana. There are 22 volcanoes in El Salvador. The total population living within 30 kilometers is 5,810,382, which makes the percentage of population living within 30 kilometers from a volcano is 92. The volcanoes are part of the circum-pacific ring of fire and they are related to the subduction of the ocean Coco's Plate under the Caribbean tectonic plate. My recommendation to address the hazard of volcanoes would be to keep a very close watch at all times. Any indication of close to an indication, evacuate immediately. 92% of the country’s population lives within 18 miles of these volcanoes. For many health and safety reasons there has to be monitoring at all times. There are a lot of information that is needed to know regarding health consequences when eruptions do happen, I would make sure everyone is informed and knows exactly what to do in order to secure their health and safety. I would target the closest areas to the volcanoes and work my way towards the farthest. The goal would be to get the closest ones to safety because they are at most risk.

In the last hundred years, El Salvador has had 13 major earthquakes. The second main hazard I would consider to be really dangerous would be earthquakes. El Salvador has frequent and sometimes destructive earthquakes. Preventionweb.net presents graphs with different rates related to disasters. The mortality graph shows that 40.3% is because of earthquakes, that is the biggest percentage in this graph. Combined economic losses,86.1% is because of earthquakes. Annual loss due to earthquakes is 250 million dollars. Earthquake’s contribution to average annual loss is 95.2. El Salvador is located at the western part of the Caribbean Plate, where it is subducting the Cocos plate. Subduction zones like this one are very complex and produce many earthquakes from multiple sources. Intraplate earthquakes occur within the crust of the overriding Caribbean plate. Deeper intraplate earthquakes occur within the subducting Cocos plate. The earthquake sequence in the El Salvador has involved intraplate faulting in both the Cocos and Caribbean plates. My recommendation to address this hazard of earthquakes would be to assure everyone knows the routine and where to go in case of an earthquake occurring. I would make sure there are emergency kits in most buildings, along with educational and required courses of information to secure safety. I would first target areas that have had the most earthquakes and that are in a dangerous environment vulnerable to disaster during earthquakes.

If I were to build a house in El Salvador I would definitely stay away from the cities and towns that are close to volcanoes to be safe in case of any eruptions, including the capital city although it is a beautiful attraction.  I would also stay away from the ocean, in case of tsunamis or ocean related hazards. With that being said I would pick one of the small towns around where my mother grew up, away from the dangerous hazards. Towns like San Francisco Gotera, Sabenatas, and Santa Rosa de Lima area,

References:

http://www.volcanodiscovery.com/el-salvador.html

http://www.preventionweb.net/countries/slv/data/