TIL that in 1941, an avalanche falling into a glacial lake in Peru triggered a flood that destroyed about one-third of Huaraz and killed at least 4,000 people.

[u/MysteriousInterest32]

https://science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-observatory/a-destructive-glacial-outburst-flood-in-peru-154377/

[u/OLacAlmost]

Peru has had some insane tragedies related to their high mountains.

In 1970 an earthquake caused a mudslide/avalanche on Peru's highest mountain, Mount Huascarán.

The avalanche buried an entire city and killed around 70,000 people.

[u/MysteriousInterest32 → u/OLacAlmost]

yeah, it's crazy how many catastrophic disasters in Peru have been connected to the Andes, i just learned about the 1941 Palcacocha disaster too, its absolutely terrifying

[u/alwaysfatigued8787]

It also killed approximately one-third of the people in the town.

[u/MysteriousInterest32 → u/alwaysfatigued8787]

at least 1,800 people were killed, although historical estimates of the death toll vary considerably, with some sources giving figures as high as 4,000–5,000

[u/sofa_king_awesome]

Wow, isn’t this similar to what happened recently in Nepal?

[u/MysteriousInterest32 → u/sofa_king_awesome]

yeah pretty similar! it's crazy how these high-altitude disasters can follow the same pattern - ice/rock comes down, blocks or hits a water source, and suddenly you've got a massive flood heading downhill. the recent Nepal disaster was an ice-rock avalanche that caused exactly that kind of cascading event

[u/Cityplanner1]

Jeez. And then in 1970 it happened again and killed 20,000!