We investigate the existence of a mechanism of static stress triggering driven by the\ud interaction of normal faults in the Middle American subduction zone and strike-slip faults\ud in the El Salvador volcanic arc. The local geology points to a large strike-slip fault zone,\ud the El Salvador fault zone, as the source of several destructive earthquakes in El Salvador\ud along the volcanic arc. We modeled the Coulomb failure stress (CFS) change produced\ud by the June 1982 and January 2001 subduction events on planes parallel to the El Salvador\ud fault zone. The results have broad implications for future risk management in the region,\ud as they suggest a causative relationship between the position of the normal-slip events in\ud the subduction zone and the strike-slip events in the volcanic arc. After the February 2001\ud event, an important area of the El Salvador fault zone was loaded with a positive change\ud in Coulomb failure stress (.0.15 MPa). This scenario must be considered in the seismic\ud hazard assessment studies that will be carried out in this area

Spain represents an important part of the tourism sector in the Western Mediterranean, which has been affected in the past by tsunamis. Although the tsunami risk at the Spanish coasts is not the highest of the Mediterranean, the necessity of tsunami risk mitigation measures should not be neglected. In the Mediterranean area, Spain is exposed to two different tectonic environments with contrasting characteristics. On one hand, the Alboran Basin characterised by transcurrent and transpressive tectonics and, on the other hand, the North Algerian fold and thrust belt, characterised by compressive tectonics. A set of 22 seismic tsunamigenic sources has been used to estimate the tsunami threat over the Spanish Mediterranean coast of the Iberian peninsula and the Balearic Islands. Maximum wave elevation maps and tsunami travel times have been computed by means of numerical modelling and we have obtained estimations of threat levels for each source over the Spanish coast. The sources on the Western edge of North Algeria are the most dangerous, due to their threat to the South-Eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula and to the Western Balearic Islands. In general, the Northern Algerian sources pose a greater risk to the Spanish coast than the Alboran Sea sources, which only threaten the peninsular coast. In the Iberian Peninsula, the Spanish provinces of Almeria and Murcia are the most exposed, while all the Balearic Islands can be affected by the North Algerian sources with probable severe damage, specially the islands of Ibiza and Minorca. The results obtained in this work are useful to plan future regional and local warning systems, as well as to set the priority areas to conduct research on detailed tsunami risk.

Advances in the understanding and prediction of tsunami impacts allow the development of risk reduction strategies for tsunami-prone areas. This paper presents an integral framework for the formulation of tsunami evacuation plans based on tsunami vulnerability assessment and evacuation modelling. This framework considers (i) the hazard aspects (tsunami flooding characteristics and arrival time), (ii) the characteristics of the exposed area (people, shelters and road network), (iii) the current tsunami warning procedures and timing, (iv) the time needed to evacuate the population, and (v) the identification of measures to improve the evacuation process. The proposed methodological framework aims to bridge between risk assessment and risk management in terms of tsunami evacuation, as it allows for an estimation of the degree of evacuation success of specific management options, as well as for the classification and prioritization of the gathered information, in order to formulate an optimal evacuation plan. The framework has been applied to the El Salvador case study, demonstrating its applicability to site-specific response times and population characteristics.