Two anomalous sand units in the Ixtapa estuary are interpreted to be the result of high-energy marine inundation events that occurred in the last century. Several lines of evidence using a multi-proxy approach (historical studies, interviews with local witnesses, geomorphological and geological surveys, coring and trenching, laboratory analyses including grain size, micropaleontology, geochemistry, magnetic susceptibility and radiometric dating, and numerical modeling) indicate the occurrence of two tsunamis that we link to local events: the 21st September 1985 Mexico and possibly the 14th March 1979 Petatlan earthquakes. We thereby provide the first onshore geological evidence of historical tsunamis on the Pacific coast of Mexico. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.