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Yungay is a small village that lies about 60 km north of Huaraz. The towns are connected by a road that runs the length of the high Río Santa Valley, also known as "El Callejón de Huaylas". Bordering the valley on the east is the Cordillera Blanca, many of whose ice covered summits tower nearly two miles above the valley floor. On the west the valley is blocked in by the snow-less and barren summits of the Cordillera Negra. Only 15 km from Yungay, but more importantly over 3 kilometers higher, rises the summit of Nevado Huascaran. At a height of 6768 meters (22,205 feet) above sea level, it is the highest mountain in Peru and the highest summit so close to the equator anywhere in the world. It is about 1000 meters higher than Kilimanjaro. In 1962 an avalanche of rock, ice, and snow broke loose from the North face of Huascaran. It roared into the Río Santa Valley, wiped out several villages and killed more than 3,000 people. But this was only a warning from the mountain about what it would do next. On 31 May 1970 a severe earthquake (magnitude 8 on the Richter scale) rocked the valley. The trembling earth broke loose a massive amount of rock and ice from the west side of the north half of the Huascaran massif. The size of the chunk of mountain that was broken loose is staggering. Estimates are that it was over 3000 feet wide and one mile long. The initial movement of what must have been more than 10 million cubic meters of ice and rock was almost purely vertical. It gathered so much energy so quickly that it steamrolled towards the hapless town of Yungay at an average speed of over 200 km/hr. Much of the descending piece of the mountain may have even been airborne for several seconds even after its initial plunge. On the image with a thumbnail version below you can see the vertical cliffs on the northwest face of Huascaran and the deeply cut path leading off the the right that the avalanche followed as it roared towards Yungay.
About 20,000 people were killed instantly as the rock and ice swept over and buried Yungay. Now there are shrines and memorials on the new ground in and under which the 20,000 inhabitants of Yungay were buried alive. (See the image at the top of this page.) What I found most moving, though, were a few palm trees that used to grace the central Plaza des Armas of Yungay. They were buried nearly up to their fronds, but still managed to survive and continue to grow just as the town has rebuilt itself a short distance away and on higher ground. Except that one of the trees was recently killed by a fire thought to have been set by vandals. In back of the trees in the image at the top of this page may be seen the top of the church tower that used to be near the central plaza. Huascaran dominates the skyline. You can see the scar on its lower slopes from the avalanche. I find it impossible to imagine the fear and terror that the people of Yungay must have felt when they saw the high wall of rock and ice as it rushed over the dip between the small hills in the near background at a speed of well over 100 mph. It was the last thing they would see. The earthquake itself was so severe and damage so wide spread that aside from those killed just by the avalanche, the number of fatalities elsewhere in central Peru was about 50,000. This is the worst natural disaster ever to hit South America. The remaining 5 images here are pastoral scenes in the Río Santa Valley and on the road out of the valley leading to the Langunas Llanganuco. After the thumbnails, I give some links to pages that give more information about the Yungay disaster. Some of my facts and figures are based on information given on these pages, especially those from the U. S. Geological Service.
Websites with more information and some interesting historical photographs:
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