Unearthing earthquakes and their tsunamis using multiple proxies: the 22 June 1932 event and a probable fourteenth-century predecessor on the Pacific coast of Mexico

Here, we investigate the deposits on the Colima coast of Mexico, which overlies the subducting Rivera and Cocos Plates, in order to reconstruct the tsunami inundation history and related hazard.

We developed a multi-proxy study aimed to recognize and date historical and palaeotsunami deposits, including historical data on the effects of a known tsunami, geomorphological mapping, stratigraphic, grain size, organic matter content, diatoms, geochemical composition, magnetic susceptibility, and anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility, together with radiometric dating ( 210 Pb and 14 C). We identified two probable tsunami deposits at Palo Verde estuary including a historical event associated with the Mw 6.9 earthquake on 22 June 1932 and a palaeotsunami most likely generated by a similar event in the fourteenth century.