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Peru Natural Disasters and Their Impact
Severely affecting conditions on both land and sea, El
Niño
is yet another peculiarity of the Peruvian environment.
This
stream of equatorial water periodically forces its way
southward
against the shoreline, pushing the cold Humboldt Current
and its
vast fishery deeper and westward into the ocean, while
bringing
in exotic equatorial species. El Niño is not benign, even
though
named after the Christ-child because it has often appeared
in
December. Instead, over cycles of fifteen to twenty-five
years,
El Niño disrupts the normally rainless coastal climate and
produces heavy rainfalls, floods, and consequent damages.
The
reverse occurs in the highlands, where drought-like
conditions
occur, often over two-to-five-year periods, reducing
agricultural
production. The impact of this phenomenon came to be more
fully
understood only in the 1980s, and it has been shown to
influence
Atlantic hurricane patterns as well. Moreover,
archaeological
research by Michael Edward Moseley has demonstrated that
El Niño
turbulence probably led to the heretofore unexplained
collapses
of apparently prosperous ancient Andean societies. From
1981 to
1984, Peruvians experienced severe destruction from this
perturbation; the destruction clearly contributed to the
rapidly
deteriorating socioeconomic conditions in the country.
Another major environmental variable is the activity of
the
Nazca plate, which abuts Peru along the Pacific shore and
constantly forces the continental land mass upward.
Although
volcanism created numerous thermal springs throughout the
coastal
and highland region and created such striking volcanic
cones as
El Misti, which overlooks the city of Arequipa, it also
poses the
constant threat of severe earthquakes.
In the Sierra, much farmland rests at the foot of
great,
unstable mountains, such as those overlooking the
spectacular
valley of Callejón de Huaylas, which is replete with the
evidence
of past avalanches and seismic upheaval. It is also one of
the
most productive agricultural areas in the highlands. On
May 31,
1970, an earthquake measuring 7.7 on the Richter scale
staggered
the department of Ancash and adjacent areas. A block of
glacial
ice split from the top of El Huascarán, Peru's tallest
mountain
(6,768 meters), and buried the provincial capital of
Yungay under
a blanket of mud and rock, killing about 5,000 people. In
the
affected region, 70,000 persons were killed, 140,000
injured, and
over 500,000 left homeless. It was the most destructive
disaster
in the history of the Western Hemisphere and had major
negative
effects on the national economy and government reform
programs at
a critical moment during the administration of Juan
Velasco
Alvarado (1968-75).
In precolonial times, the Incas and their ancestors had
long
grappled with the seismic problem. Many archaeologists
have
attributed the special trapezoidal character of Inca
architecture
to precautions against earthquakes. The first name of the
founder
of the Inca empire, Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui, means
"cataclysm."
The Incas understood their terrain. Since 1568 there have
been
over 70 significant earthquakes in Peru, or one every six
years,
although each year the country registers as many as 200
lesser
quakes. As an expression of their own powerlessness in the
face
of such events, many Peruvians pray for protection to a
series of
earthquake saints. Among such saints are Cusco's Señor de
los
Temblores (Lord of the Tremors), revered since a disaster
in
1650, and the Señor de los Milagros (Lord of Miracles),
worshipped in Lima and nationwide since a quake in 1655.
Data as of September 1992
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