Imagine sitting at school, working on some math problems. Suddenly, you start to feel a little dizzy, but you're not sure why. You then realize, no, it's not dizziness, but your desk is moving, bouncing up and down! You look to your classmate, and she's feeling the same thing, and you're both a little scared. Thankfully the motion starts to calm down and eventually stops. You've just experienced a temblor, or "little earthquake", which is a smaller version of terremotos, or actual earthquakes.
Because of where El Salvador is located on the planet, Salvadorans have to live with two added risks in their lives: earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Why do we face these risks here?
El Salvador has 23 active volcanoes belonging to the Central American Volcanic Arc, a line of volcanoes that belongs to the Ring of Fire (see image to the right of this article). These volcanoes were formed as a result of giant pieces of earth (called "tectonic plates") colliding a really long time ago.
If you look at a map of these tectonic plates, you'll see that El Salvador is basically resting at an intersection point of these plates, which are in constant movement.
