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GWB Awards its First Ever Project in El Salvador on Volcano Preparedness

In June 2025, GWB’s Technical Review Sub-Committee selected two projects for funding, one of which is in El Salvador on volcano preparedness. This will be GWB’s first ever project in El Salvador.

Location

The Santa Ana volcanic complex is the second most active area in El Salvador. The volcano has become a prime tourist destination because of its stunning views and picturesque crater-lake. Thousands visit during prime holiday weeks and this boom in the tourist sector has brought economic benefits and growth to the surrounding communities.

Lago de Coatepeque, El Salvador. Photo Courtesy Thomas Goebel.

1 October 2005, saw the last major eruption, producing a 14 km (8.6 miles) high plume and resulting in 15,000 residents’ evacuation. Prior to the 2005 Santa Ana eruption, Volcan Izalco, located 3.5 km (2.17 miles) south, erupted continuously between 1770 and 1966. These major eruptions occurred before the recent economic boom, which arguably placed people in danger. 

About the Project

A large eruption without better monitoring and preparedness efforts could have devastating consequences. At present, there is no adequate real-time seismic monitoring system in place that could capture early stages of eruptive processes. Seismic monitoring is one of the primary tools to track deep processes underneath volcanoes and issue alerts to prevent the most severe effects such as loss of life. The El Salvadoran environmental department (MARN), which is one of the partners on this project, installed three short-period stations in the area. However, only one station has been reliably providing data.

Need

The primary need is to establish a robust seismic monitoring system that is capable of recording and locating seismic events with high fidelity. This work will benefit from the long-term engagement of Principal Investigator (PI), Thomas Goebel (University of Memphis) in El Salvador. The PI has been active in El Salvador since 2017 and has taught two short courses in induced seismicity and fault friction (2019) and observational seismology (2022).

San Isidro School, El Salvador. Photo Courtesy Thomas Goebel.

Main Objectives

  1. Hazard assessment and risk mitigation around Santa Ana Volcanic complex
    • Build real-time seismic monitoring system
    • Detect seismicity associated with fluid and magma movements.
    • Capture precursory activity before eruptions.
  2. Characterize magma sources beneath Santa Ana volcanic complex
  3. Education and outreach

Project Goals

  1. Build a broad-band volcano monitoring network.
  2. Establish real-time data streams and create earthquake catalogs.
  3. Communicate results with community partners and the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources (MARN).
Project team with deployed resistivity meters, El Salvador. Photo Courtesy Thomas Goebel.

Sustainability

The long-term partnership between the University of Memphis and the National University, El Salvador will ensure the sustainability of the monitoring system under this GWB project.

To learn more about this project updates, please visit GWB’s funded projects page and email at [email protected] 

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