On 13 January 2001, at 11:33 CTZ (17:33 UTC), a Mw  7.7 earthquake struck off the coast of Usulután Department, El Salvador, at a depth of 60 km (37 mi).

[1][7] The January 13 earthquake was a result of normal faulting within the subducting Cocos plate as shown by the hypocentral depth and published focal mechanisms.

[1] The USGS assigned a maximum intensity of VIII (Severe) for the earthquake, estimating that almost the entirety of El Salvador was exposed to shaking levels exceeding VI (Strong).

[1] Shaking levels of MMI VI-VII (Strong-Very Strong) were also estimated in parts of Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua closest to the epicenter.

[11] At least 944 people were killed, 5,565 others were injured, 193 were missing, 1,364,160 were affected, 108,261 houses collapsed, 169,692 others, 1,155 public buildings, 405 churches, 94 health centers and 43 docks were damaged throughout El Salvador.

[5][12] In La Libertad Department alone, 685 deaths occurred,[5] including 585 from large landslides in Santa Tecla and Comasagua, which buried between 200 and 500 homes.

[16] Government and public health organizations warned of the possible spread of disease as desperate people began to scavenge debris piles – some containing severed human limbs – looking for items they could pawn to purchase needed food and other commodities.

While Salvadoran government representatives were quick to point out that the destruction had been far less than that of the 1986 earthquakes,[18] outside researchers critiqued shortcomings in preparedness and in policies toward land development that had permitted massive deforestation in the Santa Tecla area.

Mexican seismologists invited by the Salvadoran government summarized their observations this way: The construction equipment of the Ministry of Public Works was thinly stretched over hundreds of earth slumps and seemed inadequate to the task.

The Nicaragua-based magazine Envío argued that the conservative government's pro-business stance had fostered aggressive levels of land development, coupled with high poverty rates that forced poor rural residents to make do with inadequate but cheap building materials, asserting: "Totaling up these factors makes it clear that the consequences of a natural phenomenon like an earthquake cannot be described as 'natural' ...