No latest activity reported for San Salvador.

Below is a summary of eruption dates and Volcanic Explosivity Indices (VEI).

The following references are the sources used for data regarding this volcano. References are linked directly to our volcano data file. Discussion of another volcano or eruption (sometimes far from the one that is the subject of the manuscript) may produce a citation that is not at all apparent from the title. Additional discussion of data sources can be found under Volcano Data Criteria.

Carr M J, 1984. Symmetrical and segmented variation of physical and geochemical characterisitics of the Central American volcanic front. {J Volc Geotherm Res}, 20: 231-252

Fairbrothers G E, Carr M J, Mayfield D G, 1978. Temporal magmatic variation at Boqueron Volcano, El Salvador. {Contr Mineral Petr}, 67: 1-9

IAVCEI, 1973-80. Post-Miocene Volcanoes of the World. {IAVCEI Data Sheets, Rome: Internatl Assoc Volc Chemistry Earth's Interior}.

Major J J, Schilling S P, Pullinger C R, Escobar C D, 2004. Debris-flow hazards at San Salvador, San Vicente, and San Miguel volcanoes, El Salvador. {In}: Rose W I, Bommer J J, Lopez D L, Carr M J, Major J J (eds), Natural Hazards in El Salvador, {Geol Soc Amer Spec Pap}, 375: 89-108

Major J J, Schilling S P, Sofield D J, Escobar CD, Pullinger C R, 2001. Volcano hazards in the San Salvador region, El Salvador. {U S Geol Surv Open-File Rpt}, 01-366: 1-23

Miller C D, 2002. Volcanology, stratigraphy, and effects on structures. {In}: Sheets P (ed), {Before the Volcano Erupted: The Ancient Ceren Village in Central America}. Austin: Univ Texas Press, p 11-23

Mooser F, Meyer-Abich H, McBirney A R, 1958. Central America. {Catalog of Active Volcanoes of the World and Solfatara Fields}, Rome: IAVCEI, 6: 1-146

Sapper K, 1925. {The Volcanoes of Central America}. Halle: Verlag Max Niemeyer, 144 p

Sheets P (ed), 2002. {Before the Volcano Erupted: The Ancient Ceren Village in Central America}. Austin: Univ Texas Press, 226 p

Sheets P D, 2004. Apocalypse then: social science approaches to volcanism, people, and cultures in the Zapotitan Valley, El Salvador. {In}: Rose W I, Bommer J J, Lopez D L, Carr M J, Major J J (eds), Natural Hazards in El Salvador, {Geol Soc Amer Spec Pap, 375: 109-120

Sofield D, 2004. Eruptive history and volcanic hazards of Volcan San Salvador. {In}: Rose W I, Bommer J J, Lopez D L, Carr M J, Major J J (eds), Natural Hazards in El Salvador, {Geol Soc Amer Spec Pap}, 375: 147-158

Williams H, Meyer-Abich H, 1955. Volcanism in the southern part of El Salvador with particular reference to the collapse basins of Lakes Coatepeque and Ilopango. {Univ Calif Pub Geol Sci}, 32: 1-64

The massive compound San Salvador volcano dominates the landscape west of El Salvador's capital city of San Salvador. The dominantly andesitic Boquerón stratovolcano has grown within a 6-km-wide caldera, whose rim is partially exposed at Picacho and Jabalí peaks, that formed by collapse of an older San Salvador volcano about 40,000 years ago. The summit of Boquerón is truncated by a steep-walled crater 1.5 km wide and about 500 m deep that formed during a major eruption about 800 years ago. It contained a crater lake prior to an eruption during 1917 that formed a small cinder cone on the crater floor; a major north-flank lava flow also erupted in this year. Three fracture zones that extend beyond the base of San Salvador volcano have been the locus for numerous flank eruptions, including two that formed maars on the WNW and SE sides. Most of the four historical eruptions recorded since the 16th century have originated from flank vents, including two in the 17th century from the NW-flank cone of El Playón, during which explosions and a lava flow damaged inhabited areas.