The ruins of the ancient settlement of “El Tolmo de Minateda” are one of the best representative archaeological sites within the Albacete Province (SE Spain), characterized by a well-preserved record for the last ~3800 yr. The present ruins record an almost continuous of occupation from the Late Bronze Age (Iberian Culture, from ca. third century B.C.) to the High Middle Ages, including intervening and successive Roman, Visigoth, and Muslim city remains. The eventual Muslim settlement was abruptly abandoned and destroyed during the ninth–tenth centuries A.D., leaving a lack of any archaeological evidence of war or decay. Another previous anomalous archaeological episode of abrupt city abandonment and destruction is recorded during the Visigothic Period (seventh century). The archaeological record of this city supports evidence for earthquake damage linked to both periods of city abandonment and destruction, including oriented collapse of walls, watchtowers, and columns, oriented cracking of walls and column drums, as well as in situ broken pottery, abrupt abandonment of kilns, and anomalous sedimentary infilling of canals and water-supply facilities. Additionally, large-scale rockfalls containing Visigothic carved tombs are also apparently associated with both episodes, constituting one of the few instances of combined geoarchaeological evidence of earthquake ground effects ever reported. As a means of testing the theoretical archaeoseismic potential of this site, we obtained an archaeoseismic quality factor (AQF) value of 0.074.

During the past 15 yr, volcanological studies in Mexico have been mostly focused on the pyroclastic stratigraphy and petrologic evolution of the volcanoes, with very little attention paid to detailed mapping of volcanic areas. In this study, we present a geologic map of the Colima volcanic complex, which covers ~3780 km 2 . The Colima volcanic complex is made of El Cántaro, Nevado de Colima, Paleofuego, and Colima volcanoes, totaling 422 km 3 in volume. The activity of the Colima volcanic complex started at El Cántaro with the emission of lava flows and domes ca. 1.7 Ma. About 0.53 Ma, 15 km southward, the formation of Nevado began with the emission of lava flows. Nevado produced at least four collapses that generated debris avalanches, debris flows, and pyroclastic-flow deposits. During late Pleistocene (>>38,500 yr B.P.), the formation of Paleofuego began 5 km further south with the emission of lava flows. Paleofuego collapsed at least five times, producing debris avalanches and pyroclastic-flow deposits. The last collapse of Paleofuego, at 2505 yr B.P., produced a 5-km-wide caldera, inside of which grew Colima volcano. Colima is the most active volcano in Mexico, with 45 eruptions during the past 426 yr, representing a potential hazard for the surrounding population of ~0.9 million people. From the geological mapping, it is clear that volcanic activity and collapses of the Colima volcanic complex have been controlled by the active Tamazula fault, which generated the NE-SW Alceseca-Atenquique graben.