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On the morning of 14th October 1956, a mass made of boulders and mud fall through the slope of the Rodeno Mountain (Calderona range) and destroyed part of the urban area of Marines (Valencia), causing 6 fatalities and numerous material damages. This research reconstructs this event and develops an interpretation of the mass movement, based on documents from historical archives, post-event pictures, interviews with witnesses and sediment examination. These materials allow mapping the event and identifying this phenomenon as a debris flow most likely connected to initial debris avalanches that took place at the headwaters area. The magnitude of the event and the existence of similar sediment deposits in the surrounding area highlight the significant hazard that still threatens this mountain village. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increase in the frequency of heavy rainfall events in Mediterranean areas is a matter of concern and not only from the hydro-geomorphological point of view, but also from the human, socioeconomic and infrastructural point of view. The definition of the heavy rainfall threshold is key to determine the dangerousness of a territory. In this study we adjusted different classifications of this, with the problems and impacts identified in two contrasted Mediterranean areas of the province of Malaga, one of them characterized by a subhumid Mediterranean climate (Guadalhorce), and another by a dry-semi-arid Mediterranean climate (Axarquía). From the analysis of the rainfall data of 18 observatories (SAIH Network), the results determine a low recurrence of the predefined heavy rainfall events (> 100 mm 24 h-1;> 60 mm h-1), proposing the use of a new threshold of shorter duration, but much higher intensity (> 10 mm 10 min-1), because there are many episodes produced below the previous thresholds, but with territorial consequences, as we noted after the media analysis. Precipitation that fits this criterion has been defined as "geomorphological rainfall" due to its high capacity to modify surface formations. This type of precipitation presents in both environments a high recurrence, a practically annual return period and high erosivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]