Damage to Masonry Building Structures

Caused by the El Salvador Earthquake of January 13, 2001

by

Koji YOSHIMURA* and Masayuki KUROKI**

* Professor of Structural Engineering, Department of Architectural Engineering, Oita University, Oita, Japan
E-mail: kojiysmr@cc.oita-u.ac.jp

** Research Associate of Structural Engineering, Department of Architectural Engineering, Oita University, Oita, Japan
E-mail: mkuroki@cc.oita-u.ac.jp

Abstract
Based on the field investigation conducted in the Republic of El Salvador, damage to building structures caused by
the El Salvador Earthquake of January 13, 2001 is briefly introduced. Special emphasis is placed on the damage to the un-
reinforced adobe and brick masonry building structures.

Key words: El Salvador Earthquake, structural damage, masonry buildings, adobe housings, confined masonry walls

1 Introduction attended the International Cooperation Project at the Na-

On January 13, 2001, an earthquake of Magnitude of
Mw=7.7 occurred in the Republic of El Salvador in Cen-
tral America. As of the 13th of February in 2001, the death
toll was 844 and 4,723 people were injured, and more than
75,000 houses were totally collapsed, in which those of the
damage statistics are based on the source presented by the
National Emergency Committee (CDEN) in El Salvador
[References 1 and 2].
In order to investigate the structural damage to the
building structures caused by this earthquake, authors of
the present study arrived at San Salvador, the Capital of the
Republic of El Salvador, on February 9, 2001, and spent
five days mainly at around the severely damaged areas in
El Salvador to conduct the field investigation of the dam-
aged building structures. In addition, non-damaged build-
ing structures were also investigated in the downtown, San
Salvador City on the last day before leaving El Salvador on
February 13, 2001, when other big earthquake with Magni-
tude of Mw=6.6 occurred at early morning and the San
Salvador International Airport building was subjected to
slight earthquake damage and had been closed in the morn-
ing of the same day.
Since early 1990’s after one of the present authors
tional Center for Disaster Prevention (CENAPRED) in
Mexico City, a number of experimental and field investiga-
tion studies have been conducted in the Structural Engi-
neering Laboratory of Oita University in order to develop
much higher seismic performance of the un-reinforced and
confined masonry wall building structures in the develop-
ing earthquake countries [References 3 through 14]. Main
objective of the field investigation presented herein is to
collect the general information about the damage to the
masonry building structures which were caused by the El
Salvador Earthquake of January 13, 2001.
2 Recent Seismic Activity in El Salvador
El Salvador is located in the western border of the
Caribbean Plate, and the Cocos Plate is subducting under
the Caribbean Plate, which is one of the causes for the seis-
mic activity in El Salvador. The other cause for the Salva-
dorian earthquakes is due to the activity of volcanoes along
the volcanic belt running from Guatemala to Costa Rica,
which has produced more extensive earthquake damage in
this country [Reference 15].
During the period from 1965 through 1999, the most
significant earthquakes occurred in El Salvador were 1965,
1982 and 1986 earthquakes with Richter Magnitudes of
Ms=6.0, 7.2 and 5.4, respectively, and the maximum inten-
sity of the ground shaking in the City of San Salvador were
MM= Ⅷ , Ⅶ and Ⅷ in Modified Mercalli Scale, respec-
tively [Reference 16]. The 1965 earthquake whose epicen-
ter was 10 km from the City of San Salvador with 8 km in
depth, caused significant damage and 120 people were killed
by this earthquake, while the epicenter of the 1982 earth-
quake was located approximately 60 km to the Southeast
of the San Salvador City and its depth was 80 km. Due to
this earthquake, eight persons were dead and 1,630 houses
were damaged. Although the 1986 earthquake had the small-
est magnitude of Ms=5.4 among those three earthquakes,
about 1,500 people were killed, 7,000 to 10,000 were in-
jured and 100,000 people were affected by the earthquake.
The epicenter of this earthquake was just the South of San
Salvador and focal depth was less than 8 km [Reference 17].
3 Seismic and Structural Design Standards
in El Salvador [Reference 15]
After the occurrence of the 1965 earthquake in El
Salvador, the first seismic design code in El Salvador was
published on January 21, 1966 [Reference 18], in which
the seismic code of the City of Acapulco in Mexico was
slightly modified. After the 1986 earthquake, the Associa-
tion of the Engineers and Architects in El Salvador (ASIA)
published the Emergency Regulation for Seismic Design in
the Republic of El Salvador, which was improved and ex-
tended version of the 1966 seismic design code. Based on
this regulation, the revised edition of the seismic design
code was published in 1989 [Reference 19], and the present
seismic design standard was published in 1997 [Reference
20]. In Table 1, the design base shears which are prescribed
in those three above seismic design codes in El Salvador
are compared [Reference 21].

Table 1 Design Base-shears in 1966, 1989 and 1997 Seismic Design Codes in El Salvador
1966 (DIA OF 66) 1989 (REDSES) 1997 (NTDS 97)

Formula of Base-shear V =C S W V =C S W V =C S W
2 3
AIC  T0 
C S =DC C S =DCI C = 0
 T 
Seismic Coefficient R  
C =f (Z , Struc. type , I ) C =f (Z , Struc. type )
T 0 < T < 6T
A
Zone Factor Z , Implicated in C Z , Implicated in C 0.4, 0.3
( determined by Table )
I
Implicated in C I
Importance Factor 1.5, 1.2, 1.0
1.3, 1.0, 0.0 1.5, 1.3, 1.0, 0.2
( determined by Table )
Factor or 0.60 < D < 1.0 0.72 R
0≤D≤ ≤ 1.0
Coefficient of Behavior D = C X C T23 ( determined by Table )
C 0 and T 0
Soil Factor None None
( determined by Table )
Type of
Static Static Static
Principal Analysis
Obligation
Dynamic or Elastic
for
Modal Spectrum Option Option
Irregular Structure, or
Analysis
Height: h >70 m
Post-elastic Verification No need No need No need

Micro-zonation No need No need No need

Definition of Seismic
Type in Step-by-step No need No need No need
Analysis
Only when Only when
P-∆ Effect No P∆ P∆
θ= θ=
CdV x hsx CdV x hsx
 In addition to the current seismic design standard as
mentioned above, El Salvador has the eight different tech-
nical standards, such as for the design for wind-pressure,
design and construction of concrete-, steel-, masonry- and
timber-structures, design of foundation and slope-stability,
quality control of the structural materials, and special stan-
dard for the design and construction of houses.
4 Structural Systems Adopted in El Salvador
[References 15 and 16]
Before the 1965 earthquake, the most popular and
frequently used housing construction in El Salvador were
“AHAREQUE” or adobe brick (or dried clay-mud brick)
construction, in which adobe was reinforced by cane,
wooden plates or boards connected each other by nails and
many tragic damage cases in torsional building failures and
weak-story collapse. Actually, the simple adobe construc-
tion method is still adopted in El Salvador, and in most of
the inland cities of this county, many of the houses are still
constructed using this simple adobe technique.
Now, the use of reinforced masonry and composite
system is more popular in the construction of residential
buildings. In case of buildings with three stories or more,
the reinforced concrete (R/C) frame systems are usually
adopted. Eventually, dual systems, frame and concrete wall
systems are used as well as the steel frame systems.
5 Brief Description of Earthquake
The main shock of this earthquake occurred at 17:33 on
Saturday of the 13th of January 2001, and it’s Magnitude

finished by lime mortar. During the period from early was Mw=7.6. Location of the epicenter was 100 km to the

1940’s to mid of 1960’s, the building structures with three- Southwest of the City of San Miguel, El Salvador, which
to eight-stories were constructed by adopting the structural was located off coast of the Central America as shown in

system composed of the concrete frames and masonry walls, Figure 1. The depth of the main shock was 39 km accord-

where the level of the structural safety was believed to be ing to the information given by the USGS National Earth-
increased automatically. During the 1986 earthquake, how- quake Information Center [http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/bulle-

ever, this mistaken concept was obviously demonstrated in tin/01-EVENTS/010113173329/zoom-in.html].

N
GUATEMALA W E
HONDURAS
S

Santa Ana Chalatenango

Santa Ana
La Libertad Cuscatlan Cabanas
Ahuachapan
San Salvador EL SALVADOR
San Salvador
Sonsonate San Visente Morazan
Maria Ostuma
Santa Tecla
San Pedro Nonualco San Miguel La Union
Playa Zacatecoluca Usulutan
International San Miguel
Conchalio Usulutan
Airport La Paz

0 25 50 km

PACIFIC OCEAN

EPICENTER

: Visited areas

Figure 1 Location of Epicenter and Visited Areas

 Table 2 Damage Statistics [http://www.terremoto.gob.sv/informacionGeneral/Cifras.htm]
Damaged
Damaged Destroyed Buried Damaged Damaged Health
Province Dead Injured Public Landslides Evacuations Hospitals
Homes Homes Homes Churches Piers Units
Buildings
La Libertad 527 1,025 24 10,102 9,091 687 150 5 0 12,357 1 4
La Paz 32 137 32 21,790 16,038 0 55 29 0 278 1 6
Sonsonate 44 1,276 36 9,776 6,220 0 42 14 0 3,169 1 5
Santa Ana 12 295 5 725 944 0 25 31 39 684 0 1
Cuscatlan 20 37 47 4,401 2,068 0 16 2 0 22 0 0
Usulutan 26 779 236 26,418 26,691 0 32 14 0 24,139 2 7
San Salvador 22 306 24 3,579 1,031 0 133 6 0 5,197 0 4
San Miguel 19 43 23 9,372 2,902 0 24 4 4 0 1 0
San Vicente 1 53 20 13,783 3,788 0 4 10 0 10 0 1
La Union 1 10 67 1,685 226 0 1 5 0 1 0 0
Ahuachapan 0 80 27 2,957 693 0 10 14 0 0 0 0
Cabanas 0 7 31 180 4 0 4 3 0 0 0 0
Morazan 0 3 4 30 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Chalatenango 0 4 6 67 14 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
Total 704 4,055 582 104,865 69,713 688 496 137 43 45,857 6 28

According to the news paper on February 13, 2001 and
latest web-site information on February 21, 2001, the source
of which was given by the National Emergency Committee
(CDEN) in El Salvador, the total number of dead people
was 844 and 4,723 persons were injured, while 74,955
houses were totally collapsed and 318 churches and 639
public buildings were damaged [References 1 and 2]. Table
2 shows the damage statistics caused by this earthquake,
which is the official data published by the Government of
the Republic of El Salvador on January 25, 2001 [Source:
http://www.terremoto.gob.sv/informacionGeneral/
Cifras.htm].
During the main shock of this earthquake, a number of
earthquake accelerograms were recorded by the University
of Central America. Among these, the peak accelerations
in E-W and N-S directions were recorded at the ULLB (La
Libertad) Station, which is located at about 75 km North-
west of the epicenter, were 531 cm/sec2, and 876 cm/sec2,
respectively, while the peak acceleration in U-D (Vertical)
direction was recorded at the USPN (San Pedro Nonualco)
Station, and the value was 428 cm/sec2 [Reference 22].
These values are the maximum recorded accelerations ob-
tained during this earthquake which will be published offi-
cially soon.
visited for the present field investigation by authors, which
were located mainly along the Pacific Coast in El Salvador.
Among those visited Provinces, Usulutan, La Libertad and
La Paz were most severely damaged Provinces during this
earthquake as being understood from Table 2.
7 Damage to Building Structures
7.1 Adobe construction (Photos 1 ～ 11)
One of the most severely damaged structural systems
adopted in building structures in El Salvador was adobe
construction, where dried clay-mud brick units were sim-
ply placed for most of the structural walls, and any wall
reinforcements were almost not provided in most of the
walls. Photos 1 through 10 show the typical damage to
this type of adobe construction observed in residential
houses, church and school buildings, and Photo 11 shows
one of the examples of the adobe units with the dimen-
sion of 30 cm x 23 cm x 7 cm.

6 Field Investigation
Field investigation in severely damaged areas by this
earthquake was conducted during about five days begin-
ning from the 9th of February through the 13th of February
Photo 1 Damage to an adobe house in Santiago Nonualco
in 2001. Solid circles shown in Figure 1 are cities being
Photo 2 Vertical crack occurred at corner of adobe Photo 6 Damage to an adobe store in Santa Tecla
wall in Usulutan

Photo 3 Failure of an adobe house in San Pedro Photo 7 Damage to an adobe store in Santa Tecla
Nonualco

Photo 4 Damage to an adobe house in Mario Otsuma Photo 8 Damage to an adobe church in Mario Otsuma

Photo 5 Inside of the house shown in Photo 4 Photo 9 Damage to an adobe church in Zacatecoluca

Photo 10 Damage to an adobe school in Usulutan
Photo 11 Adobe units observed in San Pedro Nonualco
7.2 Mixed timber, bamboo and mud wall housing
(Photos 12 ～ 14)
The other structural system adopted in the most severely
damaged building structures is a timber wall housing con-
struction method. This is one of the traditional wall struc-
tures adopted in housing construction in some Latin Ameri-
can countries, where structural (and/or partition) walls are
composed of timber frames and/or bamboo (or “quincha” in
Spanish), and mud or clay fillers and chopped straws or
Photo 12 Damage to a mixed timber, bamboo and
mud wall house in Santa Tecla
whole canes in some cases, and plastered finishes. One of
the main causes for those severe structural damage is due
to the lack of adequate wall strengths in both in-plane and
our-of-plane directions.
Photo 13 Damage to a mixed timber, bamboo and
mud wall house in Santa Tecla
Photo 14 Damage to a mixed timber, bamboo and mud
wall school in Usulutan
7.3 Un-reinforced masonry churches (Photos 15, 16)
Un-reinforced masonry wall building system is one of
the popular boxed-wall structural systems widely observed
and constructed all over the world, in which most of the
structural and non-structural walls are composed of clay
brick units and mortar, and there is no wall reinforcement
such as the steel reinforcing bars provided within the walls
in both horizontal and vertical directions. Since this kind of
brown-color clay bricks are usually made in relatively low
temperature, excellent mechanical properties such as high
compressive strengths cannot be expected (see Photos 40,
41 and 42). Although severe structural damage to many of
the building structures with this kind of structural system
was not observed, some of the church buildings were slightly
damaged.
 Walls”in Latin American countries.
Although a large number of the building structures with
this kind of confined masonry wall system are existing in
El Salvador, most of those buildings were not severely dam-
aged during this time earthquake as shown in Photos 17
through 22. Damage to confined masonry buildings shown
in Photos 23, 24 and 25 are some of the few cases where
hollow concrete block walls and clay masonry brick walls
were severely damaged.
Photo 15 Damage to an un-reinforced masonry wall
church in San Pedro Nonualco

Photo 17 A three-story confined masonry wall house

Photo 16 Slight damage to an un-reinforced masonry in Zacatecoluca
wall church in Santa Ana

7.4 Reinforced masonry buildings (Photos 17 ～ 25)

This masonry building system is one of the typical ma-
sonry wall structural systems widely accepted and con-
structed in Latin American and South-East Asian countries
for low- and medium-rise houses or residential buildings.
In this type of structural wall system, there are cast-in-place
R/C slender columns provided at most of the extreme edges
and intersections of masonry walls. In addition, cast-in-place
R/C collar beams, wall girders or floor slabs are usually Photo 18 A confined masonry wall house in Usulutan

provided along the top of each masonry wall. In most of the

cases, longitudinal Re-bars and hoops in R/C columns are
installed before masonry wall units are placed within the
wall plane. Therefore, after brick or block masonry units
are placed with mortar in one or half story height, then con-
crete in columns is cast, and R/C collar beams, wall girders
or floor slabs are finally constructed by cast-in-place con-
crete after all the masonry walls and R/C cast-in-place col-
umns are completed. A total of four longitudinal Re-bars
are usually provided in each of the R/C column sections.
Photo 19 A two-story confined masonry wall house in
This type of masonry walls is called as“Confined Masonry Usulutan
Photo 20 A two-story confined masonry wall house in Photo 24 Damage to a confined masonry wall house in
Santa Tecla San Pedro Nonualuco

Photo 21 A confined masonry wall house in Santa Tecla Photo 25 Failure of hollow concrete-block masonry
walls in the house shown in Photo 24

7.5 Masonry garden walls (Photos 26 ～ 33)

A large number of masonry garden walls using adobe,
clay brick and hollow concrete block units have been con-
structed, and are existing throughout this country. Most of
these walls were not severely damaged except for many
adobe walls. It can be noted that, in El Salvador, there are
vertical wall reinforcements with 40 cm spacing which are
provided in most of the masonry garden walls using the
hollow concrete block units.
Photo 22 A confined masonry wall house in San Pedro
Nonualuco

Photo 23 Damage to a confined clay-brick masonry Photo 26 Damage to an adobe garden wall in Usulutan
wall in Usulutan
Photo 27 Failure of an adobe garden wall in San Photo 31 A confined masonry garden wall in Usulutan
Pedro Nonualco (no damage)

Photo 28 An un-reinforced masonry garden wall in Photo 32 A reinforced masonry garden wall in Santa
San Salvador (no damage) Tecla (no damage)

Photo 29 An un-reinforced masonry garden wall in Photo 33 A reinforced masonry garden wall in Santa
San Salvador (no damage) Tecla (no damage)

7.6 Other earthquake damage (Photos 34 ～ 39)

In addition to the earthquake damage to building struc-
tures as mentioned above, many of the landslides caused
by the earthquake were observed during the field investiga-
tion (Photos 34 and 35). Among those, the landslide oc-
curred at Santa Tecla, La Libertad Province, was the worst,
where more than 400 of the 687 people in Las Colinas Dis-
trict were killed [Reference 23].
Photo 30 A confined masonry garden wall in
Zacatecoluca (no damage)
 Photos 36 through 39 are structural and non-structural
damage to the San Salvador International Airport Terminal
Building, which was caused by the 2001 earthquake of Feb-
ruary 13 with the Magnitude of Ms=6.6.

Photo 37 Crushing of cover concrete caused by excessive

flexure at top of the column shown in Photo 36

Photo 34 A landslide in Santa Tecla

Photo 38 A non-structural damage in San Salvador

International Airport

Photo 35 A landslide observed between San Salvador

and Santa Ana

Photo 39 A non-structural damage in San Salvador

International Airport

8 Masonry Units Fabrication and

Construction Sites (Photos 40 ～ 56)
During the short stay in El Salvador, some of the
fabrication factories for clay brick units and hollow
concrete block units were able to be visited (Photos 40
through 47).
Photo 36 Structural damage to an R/C column in San
Salvador International Airport
Photo 40 A clay brick fabrication factory in Mario Photo 44 Concrete block units fabricated in the
Otsuma factory shown in Photo 43

Photo 41 Forming of clay brick obseved in the factory Photo 45 Concrete block units fabricated in the
shown in Photo 40 factory shown in Photo 43

Photo 42 Hearth furnance in the factory shown in Photo 46 Concrete block fabrication machine in the
Photo 40 factory shown in Photo 43

Photo 43 A concrete block fabrication factory in La Photo 47 Concrete mixing machine in the factory
Paz (Drying and curing of block units) shown in Photo 43
 In addition, some of the building construction sites could
be seen during the field investigation for building earth-
quake damage. Photos 48 and 49 are one of the typical hous-
ing construction site using the mixed timber, bamboo and
clay-mud construction technique, and building construction
sites of the confined and reinforced masonry wall buildings
using the clay brick units and hollow concrete block units
are shown in Photos 50 through 56, respectively.

Photo 51 Same building shown in Photo 50

Photo 48 A mixed timber, bamboo and mud house

under construction in La Paz Province
Photo 52 Reinforcing details for confining column in
the building shown in Photo 50

Photo 49 Mud filling work in the house shown in

Photo 48
Photo 53 A confined masonry wall house under
construction in Usulutan

Photo 50 A confined masonry wall house under

construction in La Paz Province
Photo 54 A reinforced masonry wall super market
under construction in Santa Ana Province

Photo 55 Reinforcing details for a masonry wall in the
building shown in Photo 53
Photo 56 Reinforcing details for a column in the
building shown in Photo 53
9 Concluding Remarks
Although a considerable amount of building structures
were damaged during the El Salvador earthquake of Janu-
ary 13, 2001, most of the human damage was caused by the
total or partial collapse of the relatively low-rise boxed-
wall buildings, especially one- and two-story house build-
ings which were made by un-reinforced dried clay-mud
adobe, or timber and/or bamboo wall filled with clay-mud
construction systems. In addition, since most of the exist-
ing building structures are one- and two-story residential
buildings which are made by un-reinforced adobe masonry
buildings and timber and/or bamboo wall houses in El Sal-
vador, therefore most of the damage description as well as
strengthening for seismic safety and future research needs
were mainly focused on those most popular low-rise house
buildings.
In most of those severely damaged adobe and timber
and/or bamboo wall houses, all of the vertical wall-edges
at the L -, T - and + - shaped intersections in plan were not
connected each because any wall reinforcements are not
provided there. As a result, each of the walls behaved
independently in its our-of-plane direction during the earth-
quake, some walls separated from adjacent walls at their
vertical connections and finally overturned in out-of-plane
directions, or crushed, which resulted in the severe struc-
tural damage. This fact means that, if such types of wall
structures cannot keep their original boxed-wall shapes
during the strong-motion earthquakes without adequate wall
material strengths, then considerable amount of severe struc-
tural and human damage will be expected to occur again
and again during future earthquakes.
In case of this type of boxed-wall structures, it is
necessary to connect the vertical connections between ad-
jacent walls, and to connect the horizontal connections be-
tween walls and adjacent strong collar beams firmly. Once
this type of building structure is designed and constructed
so as to keep its original box-shaped building configura-
tion with strong strength wall materials, then each of the
walls can develop its excellent anti-seismic capacity such
as higher in-plane lateral stiffness and strength during earth-
quakes, that results in the much more safer building struc-
tures against earthquakes.
Acknowledgments
All the investigation presented herein were made pos-
sible by the kind cooperation given by Mr. Tomás A.
Sánchez of the National Center for Disaster Prevention in
Mexico (CENAPRED). Authors wish to thank Professor
Takeshi Mikumo of National Autonamy University of
Mexico (UNAM), Professor Patricia Alarc of the
Michoacan University in Mexico and Professor Kazuoh Seo
of Tokyo Institute of Technology for their kind advise and
information for the present study. Also many thanks are
extended to Mr. Jose Amilcar López, a taxi driver of the
City of El Salvador, Mr. Ange Lara of the National Civil
Police in El Salvador and Ms. Maria Teresa of Camino Real
Intercontinental Hotel, San Salvador for their kindness for
the present field investigation.
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