GSA Special Paper 375: Natural Hazards in El Salvador

ISBN 0-8137-2375-2

Content of the book: Recent work on natural hazards mitigation in El Salvador.

Significance of the volume: All scientists, most especially geoscientists, are confronting a rapidly increasing need to do research, training and other work aimed at the mitigation of natural hazards in less developed countries. This work requires many things that we are unprepared for. Each country is different, and natural hazards occupy a different rank in national priorities. It is difficult to do work that has impact in the local country and which builds infrastructure there. Little has been published in a comprehensive way about these problems and devoted volumes are very rare. It is important to do a volume focussed on a single country, but the volume will be useful for other countries as well. El Salvador is a small, third world country with significant seismic, landslide and volcanic hazards. Events in recent years have included civil war, floods, drought and major hurricane, earthquakes and landslide events. The country has forged a new plan to help it face severe natural hazards challenges. The plan includes the development of a new geological agency in El Salvador, which is seeking outside help. There is already significant work by scientists from throughout the world aimed at helping with this effort. The work done in El Salvador is part of a worldwide problem of building local infrastructural capability to mitigate natural hazards. The work will be of interest to the whole natural hazards community and particularly to geoscientists working on hazard mitigation. The kinds of hazards particularly highlighted in this volume are volcanic, seismic and landslide, and the contributors include Salvadorans and scientists from North America and Europe.

Editorial Group:

William I Rose, Michigan Technological University, overall editor;

JJ Bommer, Imperial College--editor of seismic hazards and social issues;

Dina Lopez, U Ohio and Michael J Carr, Rutgers, Volcanic hazards editors;

Jon J Major, USGS; Landslide, (+wildfires, tsunami and floods) editor

Preliminary Contents of the volume:

Introduction:

William I Rose, Michigan Tech, J J Bommer, Imperial College and Ciro A Sandoval, Michigan Tech--"El Salvador and Natural Hazards in the 21st Century, an introduction".

Landslides and debris flows:

Lee Siebert, Paul Kimberly, (Smithsonian Institution) and Carlos Pullinger (SNET, El Salvador)---"The voluminous Acajutla debris avalanche from Santa Ana volcano, western El Salvador, and comparison with other Central American edifice-failure events"

Steve Evans & Allison Bent, (Geological Survey of Canada)--"The Las Colinas landslide, Santa Tecla: A highly destructive flowslide triggered by the January 13th 2001 El Salvador earthquake."

Kazuo KONAGAI, Jorgen JOHANSSON, Paola MAYORCA, (University of Tokyo) Ryosuke UZUOKA (Tohoku Univ) , Tetsuro YAMAMOTO (Yamaguchi University) , Masakatsu MIYAJIMA (Kanazawa University), Nelson PULIDO (Earthquake Disaster Mitigation Research Center, Tokyo), Kyoji SASSA, Hiroshi FUKUOKA, and FreddyDURAN (Kyoto University) ---"Las Colinas Landslide: Rapid and long-travelling soil flow caused by the January 13, 2001 Off the Coast of El Salvador Earthquake",

R. Rolo, J Bommer (Imperial College, London), B F Houghton (University of Hawaii) J W Vallance (USGS CVO), P Berdousis, C Mavrommati (Imperial College, London), William Murphy (University of Leeds) "Geologic and engineering characterization of Tierra Blanca pyroclastic ash deposits".

R. Jibson, A J Crone, E L Harp, RL Baum (USGS Denver), J J Major (USGS CVO), Carlos Pullinger, Demetrio Escobar, Mauricio Martinez (SNET, El Salvador) and M E Smith (USGS Denver) "Landslides triggered by the 13 January and 13 February 2001 earthquakes in El Salvador"

J J Major, S P Schilling (USGS CVO), Carlos Pullinger and Demetrio Escobar (SNET, El Salvador) "Lahar hazards at San Salvador, San Vicente, and San Miguel volcanoes, El Salvador"

Volcanic hazards:

Payson Sheets, Univ Colo---"Apocalypse Then: Social Science Approaches to Volcanism, People, and Cultures in the Zapotitán Valley, El Salvador."

Alain Bernard (Univ Libre de Bruxelles), Carlos Demetrio Escobar (SNET, El Salvador), A Mazot (Univ Libre de Bruxelles) and Ruben Eduardo Gutierrez (SNET, El Salvador)--"The acid volcanic lake of Santa Ana Volcano, El Salvador"

J M L Salazar P A Hernandez, N M Perez (ITER, Spain), R Olmos, F Barahona, R Cartegena, T Soriano (UES, San Salvador), D L Lopez (Univ Ohio), H Sumino, K Notsu (Univ Tokyo) --- "Spatial and temporal variations of diffuse CO2 degassing at Santa Ana-Izalco-Coatepeque volcanic complex, El Salvador"

Darrell Sofield, GeoEngineers, Tacoma, WA---"Eruptive History and Volcanic Hazards of Volcán San Salvador"

Crystal P Mann, John Stix (McGill Univ), J W Vallance (USGS CVO), M Richer (McGill Univ) "Subaqueous intracaldera volcanism, Ilopango Caldera, El Salvador, Central America"

Mathieu Richer, Crystal Mann, and John Stix (McGill Univ), Mafic magma injection triggering eruption at Ilopango caldera, El Salvador, Central America

Dina Lopez, L Ransom (U Ohio), N M Perez, P Hernandez (ITER, Spain), J Monterosa (Fundacion de Amigos del Lago de Ilopango, El Salvador) -- "Dynamics of diffuse degassing at Ilopango caldera, El Salvador"

Rafael Cartagena, R Olmos (UES, San Salvador), D L Lopez (U Ohio), T Soriano, F Barahona (UES, San Salvador), P Hernandez and N M Perez (ITER, Spain) --"Diffuse soil degassing of carbon dioxide, radon, and mercury at San Miguel Volcano, El Salvador"

Craig Chesner, (E Ill Univ), C Pullinger and Demetrio Escobar (SNET, El Salvador)---"Physical and Chemical Evolution of San Miguel Volcano, El Salvador"

Nemesio M Perez, J M L Salazar, P A Hernandez (ITER, Spain), T Soriano (UES, San Salvador), D L Lopez (U Ohio), and K Notsu (Univ Tokyo)---"Diffuse CO₂ and ²²²Rn degassing from San Salvador Volcano, El Salvador, Central America"

Robert Dull (Texas A&M University)---"Lessons from the mud, lessons from the Maya: Paleoecological records of the TBJ eruption"

Salvador Handal and Luz A Barrios (Geothermica Salvadoreña, El Salvador)---"Hydrothermal Eruptions in El Salvador"

Seismic hazards:

Mario Fernandez Arce (University of Costa Rica), Demetrio Escobar (SNET, El Salvador), Carlos Redondo (University of Costa Rica)--"Seismograph networks and seismic observation in El Salvador and Central America"

Ruben Boroschek, (OPS/OMS, Chile) - "Seismic vulnerability of the health system in El Salvador and recovery after the 2001 earthquakes".

D M Dowling (University of Technology, Sydney, Australia)--- "Adobe housing in El Salvador: Earthquake performance and seismic improvement"

Manuel Lopez (UES, San Salvador), Julian Bommer (Imperial College, London), and Rui Pinho (Universita degli studi di Pavia, Italy) -- "Seismic Hazard assessments, seismic design codes and earthquake engineering in El Salvador."

Kuvvet Atakan (University of Bergen, Norway), Mauricio Ciudad Real (Kinemetrics, Pasadena, CA) and Rodolfo Torres (UES, San Salvador)--"Local site effects on microtremors, weak and strong ground motion in San Salvador, El Salvador."

Belen Benito, (Universidad Politecnica de Madrid), J Cepeda (Universidad Centroamericana), J Martinez Diaz (Universidad Complutense Madrid)-- " "Analysis of the spatial and temporal distribution of the 2001 earthquakes in El Salvador."

Conrad Lindholm (NORSAR, Norway), C R Chavarria (Universidad de Costa Rica) and Hilmar Bungham (NORSAR, Norway)--"Two earthquake databases for Central America."

J W Dewey (USGS Denver), R A White (USGS, Menlo Park) and Douglas Hernandez (SNET, El Salvador)-- "Seismicity and tectonics of El Salvador."

Randall White (USGS Menlo Park) J P Ligorria (CONRED, Guatemala) and I L Cifuentes (Carnegie Inst of Washington) -- "Seismic history of the Middle America subduction zone along El Salvador, Guatemala and Chiapas, Mexico, 1526-2000."

Allison L Bent (National Earthquake Hazards Program, Ottawa) and S G Evans (Geological Survey of Canada)---"The Mw 7.6 El Salvador earthquake of 13 January 2001 and implications for seismic hazard in El Salvador."

J M Cepeda (Universidad Centroamericana), M B Benito (Universidad Politecnica de Madrid) & E A Burgos (Universidad Centroamericana) -- "Strong motion characteristics of January and february, 2001 Earthquakes in El Salvador"

Behrooz Tavakoli and D Monterroso (Uppsala Universitet, Sweden)-- "Monte Carlo seismic hazard maps for northern Central America, covering El Salvador and surrounding areas."

Mario Fernandez Arce (University of Costa Rica), M O Figueroa (CICESE, Ensenada, Mexico), R M Amador (University of Costa Rica)--"Tsunami hazards in El Salvador"

Social issues:

Ludvina Colbeau-Justin, (Universite Rene Descartes, Paris, France) and M Mauriol (Fire Service of Martinique)-- "The earthquake of January 2001: strengths and weaknesses in social response."

Ana Elizabeth Gonzalez, (USAID, San Salvador) --"Social Perspectives on hazards and disasters in El Salvador"

L Gonzalez, L Romano & L Salamanca (Universidad Centroamericana, San Salvador)--"Risk and disasters in El Salvador: Economic, Environmental and Social Aspects."

Ricardo Zapata, Roberto Jovel, (CEPAL-UN, Mexico) - "The socio-economic effects of the 2001 earthquakes in El Salvador."

Size of volume: total papers offered: 36, page estimate 400-500 pp.

Publication date: January 2004?

William I Rose

Geological Engineering & Sciences

Michigan Technological University

Houghton, MI 49931 USA

906 487 2367

906 487 3371 fax

raman@mtu.edu