An earthquake measuring 6.6 on the Richter magnitude scale hits El Salvador, killing at least 315.

The February 2001 El Salvador earthquake occurred with a magnitude of M_w 6.6 on 13 February at 08:22:05 CTZ, with an epicenter located in Cuscatlán Department. At least 315 people were killed, 92 were missing, nearly 3,400 were injured, and extensive damage occurred in multiple departments, with over 61,500 homes damaged or destroyed.

The Richter scale, also called the Richter magnitude scale, Richter's magnitude scale, and the Gutenberg–Richter scale, is a measure of the strength of earthquakes, developed by Charles Richter in collaboration with Beno Gutenberg, and presented in Richter's landmark 1935 paper, where he called it the "magnitude scale". This was later revised and renamed the local magnitude scale, denoted as ML or M_L .

El Salvador, officially the Republic of El Salvador, is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by the Pacific Ocean. El Salvador's capital and largest city is San Salvador. El Salvador's population in 2024 was estimated to be 6 million.