Updated Tsunami Catalog for the Jalisco-Colima Coast, Mexico, Using Data from Historical Archives

Modern earthquakes and tsunamis catalogs available online are compilations of earlier catalogs that included some inaccurate information. Here, we present a thorough revision of tsunamigenic earthquakes that, in historical time, have affected the Mexican Pacific coast between Jalisco and Colima. This area is located in a complex tectonic setting where the Rivera-Cocos and North American plates have produced four M >= 8 earthquakes and two big tsunamis since the nineteenth century. We identified tsunamigenic earthquakes that were not previously documented in modern earthquake and tsunami catalogs available online through a careful reading of original historical archives and documents. Our results indicate the occurrence of 21 events; among those we report 2 earthquakes documented for the first time (1563 and 1816) for the Jalisco-Colima coast, and 8 large or medium intensity tsunamis also first reported (1816, 1818, 1900 [two tsunamis], 1911, 1933 [two tsunamis], and 1941) through documentary evidence. Our results demonstrate the need for a thorough investigation of historical documents and geological evidence of earthquakes and their tsunamis to accurately assess seismic and tsunami hazard.