November 14, 1816 Earthquake: Colima, Mexico

1816 November 13. Maximum intensity 5 at Zapotlan (Cuidad Guzman). Strong shaking for eight days. The sea retreated more than 600 paces, inundating the saltworks of San Pantaleon (reference #13024)

14 November 1816: The San Pantaleon earthquake and tsunami. On 14 November, the priest Geronimo Arzac (AHAG, 1816a) was heading to Tecoman and mentioned the occurrence of several earthquakes, the strongest of which occurred on 13 November at 18:00 hr, another one on 14 November at 1:00 hr, and a third one at 10:00 hr (local time). These earthquakes caused significant damage in Colima and Tecoman and also damaged some churches and public buildings in Guadalajara (Biblioteca Publica del Estado de Jalisco [BPEJ], 1816), Tecolotlan, Suchitlan, Ayotitlan (AHAG, 1816b), Zapotlan El Grande (Vizcaino, 1986), and Colima (Río de la Loza, 1863). Figure 4c shows a facsimile of the handwritten report by priest Jose Antonio Enriquez del Castillo (Archivo de la Parroquia de Tecoman [APT], 1817) who was an eyewitness and described a tsunami event on “November 13th of 1816 two o’clock in the morning” when “the sea…” incursion reached 60 codos high (25 m); “…the water receded…” causing destruction of the salt beds, that is, harvest infrastructure (an ancient method of salt extraction). (reference #13627)

1816 November 13, Zapotlan, Jal. “[…] at 7 at night, a great earthquake”. 1816 November 14, Zapotlan, Jal. “[…] the same was repeated at 1 in the morning, after another similar one on Thursday at 10 in the morning on the 14th, all three were very strong". (reference #13234) [unofficial translation]