ABSTRACT
The Andean region of South America has borne the brunt of more than its fair share of natural disasters. Analysis of an ice core from the southern Peruvian Andes has revealed, for example, that in the last 1,500 years, periods of drought and excessive rainfall have been just as common in the region as periods of “normal” precipitation. One-hundred-and-fifty-year cycles of drought have been followed, after brief periods of average rain, by cycles of high levels of rain that have often caused flooding. Most recently in this long cycle, in 1997–1998, El Niño ravaged the coast of Ecuador and Peru, killing hundreds and leaving thousands homeless. Earthquakes, however, are the most recurrent and feared natural disaster in the Andes. One scholar counted more than fifty “major earthquakes” in Chile alone from 1570 to 1985. Peru also suffers dozens of tremblors every century. One in particular stands out in recent history: 2 On 31 May 1970, an earthquake measuring 7.7 on the Richter scale struck north of Lima. While its epicenter was in the Pacific Ocean, it devastated the Huaylas Valley. During the quake a massive section of ice and rock came loose from a mountain peak that stood over the valley at 22,000 feet. As the avalanche gained velocity and size racing down the slope, it reached speeds of 200 miles an hour. A billion cubic feet of water, ice, rock, and mud buried the town of Yungay, killing 10,000 people, nearly everyone in the town except a lucky dozen who escaped to the top of the cemetery and a group who were on the outskirts of the town watching a circus. Today, all that can be seen of the former town are the very tops of two palm trees that used to stand over the central plaza. Combined, the earthquake and avalanche killed 75,000 people, injured 50,000, and left 800,000 homeless. 3
