Peruvian earthquake, 1970

Another famous earthquake was the one that occurred in Peru on May 31st, 1970. The earthquake claimed more than 80,000 lives. Due to the earthquake, 20,000 people lost lives in the city of Huaraz. Since the earthquake occurred almost 15 miles off Peru’s coast and far below Pacific’s seafloor, there was no tsunami. However, there were other devastating events due to the earthquake.

The earthquake shook loose a massive amount of material from the 22,205-foot Huascaran Mountain. This resulted in a combination of landslide and avalanche of snow, rocks, ice and mud. This resulted in over 20,000 people getting buried alive in the nearby city of Yungay. When the earthquake and the resulting landslide-avalanche ended, more than 80,000 people had lost lives.