Скачать или смотреть The 1970 Huascarán Debris Avalanche that leveled the town of Yungay Peru

The deadly 1970 Huascarán Debris Avalanche in Peru

On May 31, 1970, the mountains of Peru unleashed one of the deadliest natural disasters in modern history. A powerful 7.9-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Ancash shook the Cordillera Blanca, triggering a massive avalanche from Mount Huascarán. In seconds, an estimated 80 million cubic meters of ice, rock, and debris thundered down the mountain at highway speeds, burying the towns of Yungay and Ranrahirca beneath a gray, suffocating tide.

Entire communities vanished almost instantly. Trees were ripped from the ground, rivers were dammed, and the landscape was permanently reshaped. Of Yungay’s roughly 20,000 residents, only a few hundred survived—many saved by sheer chance after fleeing to higher ground near the local cemetery hill. Across the region, the earthquake and resulting landslides claimed an estimated 70,000 lives, making it the most catastrophic avalanche ever recorded.

The Huascarán disaster stands as a haunting reminder of the fragile balance between human settlement and powerful mountain environments. It also reshaped Peru’s approach to disaster preparedness, geology, and risk mapping. Today, memorials mark the silent ground where a city once stood, honoring lives lost and preserving the memory of a tragedy that unfolded in less than a minute—but is remembered forever.

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