The republic of El Salvador in Central America is an area of high seismic h
azard where at least twelve destructive earthquakes have occurred this cent
ury alone. The principal sources of seismic hazard are earthquakes associat
ed with the subduction of the Cocos plate in the Middle America Trench and
upper-crustal earthquakes in the chain of Quaternary volcanoes that runs ac
ross the country parallel to the subduction trench. Hazard assessments for
Central America have suggested almost uniform distribution of hazard throug
hout El Salvador. Seismic zonations for three successive building codes in
El Salvador simply divide the country into two regions, with the higher haz
ard zone containing the volcanoes and the coastal areas. Historical records
suggest that the greatest hazard is posed by the upper-crustal earthquakes
concentrated on the volcanic centres which, although of smaller magnitude
than the subduction events, are generally of shallow focus and coincide wit
h the main population centres, These earthquakes have repeatedly caused int
ense damage over small areas in the vicinity of some of the main volcanoes.
This study focuses on El Salvador to explore the capability of different a
pproaches to hazard assessment to reflect significant variations of seismic
hazard within small geographical areas. In the study, three 'zone-free' me
thods are employed as well as the Cornell-McGuire approach. The results of
the assessments are compared and their implications for seismic zoning for
construction and insurance purposes are discussed.