Huascaran earthquake 1975

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I feel the same way every time when being here. All the same, how insignificant human is in front of the forces of nature. The planet only needs to sneeze a bit, getting tired of our madness, hatred and arbitrariness. And not only some twenty-thousand town will disappear, but everything.

The old cemetery of the city of Yungay on the top of the hill. The only place in the city where the mudflow did not reach

Now everything here is covered with flowers.

The vast area to the right and slightly above the modern town of Yungay in Peru looks like a beautiful picnic area. However, the history of this place unlikely will make your walk so romantic. This is the Yungay Memorial.

Yungay Memorial

About 20,000 people are buried alive under a forty-meter layer of soil. Completely the entire population of the old city of Yungay.

Been there so many times, but every time feel somehow cold...

Second Huascaran mudflow. May 31, 1970, 3:23 p.m.

Photograph of the city of Yungay before the disaster

Just read:

“As a result of a strong earthquake with an epicenter 25 km from the city of Chimbote (Peru), a huge block of ice and rock broke off from the North summit of Huascaran. The total amount of the substance that took part in the formation of the mudflow was composed of 7 million m³ of rock, 1 million m³ of ice from the summit plateau, 5 million m³ of firn from the lower glacier and 30 million m³ of moraine and other sediments captured in a three-kilometer section between altitudes of 4500 and 2800 m.

The mass of the main avalanche that caused the disaster collapsed on the lower glacier, and growing, rushed through moraines, pastures and fields down the valley of the Yanganuco River.

Aerial view of the place where the city of Yungay was buried by the mudflow

The speed of the mudflow front was exceptionally high, its average value over a 14-kilometer section from the foot of Huascaran to the city of Yungay was estimated at approximately 110 m/s. (Just a second, that's almost 400 km/h, more than the takeoff speed of a Boeing, which takes off from the ground at 250 km/h). Boulders weighing more than 3 tons were thrown out of the stream further than 800 m. The mudflow overcame the distance to the city of Yungay in less than 5 minutes. There was nothing left of the city of 20,000, there were no survivors.”

Information from the book by Yu. Vinogradov "Etudes on mudflows, Gidrometeoizdat, 1980"

Statue of Christ in the center of the Yungay Memorial, facing the top of Nevado Huascaran

How much do you know about mudflows? For the most people, this concept does not exist at all. In addition to the enchantingly spectacular shots of snow or ice avalanches, maybe someone has heard the rockfall, the Karmadon glacier and Bodrov tragedy in Ossetia (North Caucasus)... Cute photos of the mountains drive Instagram subscribers crazy. Mountain resorts are a magnet for thousands of enthusiastic mountain lovers.

The danger and unpredictability of the mountains sometimes break out in the movies, but the heroes always win in the happy end... But there is another side of the coin, where a person just has no chance to survive.

Memorial plate in memory of 22 Soviet rescuers who hurried to help the victims of the earthquake in Peru... But they died in a plane crash

Even for the educated part of people who are interested in mountains, mudflow is a dirty and slow creeping along the slope slurry of mud and rocks. Alas, this is a delusion. Of all the mountain disasters, mudflow is the most destructive natural phenomenon, which, in terms of kinetic energy and severity of consequences, cannot be compared even with the most powerful snow avalanches.

Chapel inside the Yungay Memorial

When I came to Peru for the first time 17 years ago, I was surprised that even the most inaccessible small moraine lakes in the mountains are equipped with artificial emergency water drains. Made according to all the rules of engineering, reinforced, concreted. And this is despite the grave economic situation of the entire country as a whole, what can we say about the majority of regions remote from the center. They just learned their lesson.

Regular bus Yungay - Ancash, crushed by mudflow

In the USSR, to the study of mudflows was given the key importance. Intensive monitoring of the state of the ice dams and moraine lakes was carried out. And in general, the entire system of meteorological observations worked quite efficiently and regardless of global trends. Now there is no sign of that left in the modern Russia. All the meteorology stations are destroyed and neglected. No attention to the changing climate in the mountains is paid even in the most popular and developed regions.

The author of the text and photos is Alex Trubachev
Your guide to the mountain and hiking trails of Peru and Bolivia

MCS EDIT 2023