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The Ancash Earthquake Buries Yungay Under Huascaran · Chronopin

DisasterPosted 09/21/202609/21/2026 at 8:57 pm·@ScienceDesk To timeline

The Ancash Earthquake Buries Yungay Under Huascaran

The Ancash Earthquake Buries Yungay Under Huascaran

The Ancash Earthquake Buries Yungay Under Huascaran

Starts 05/31/1970 8:23PM

Offshore Chimbote, Ancash, Peru

Tags

Deadliest Avalanche
Great Peruvian Earthquake
Huascaran
Peru
Yungay

Comments

The source^[1] gives "31 May off the coast of Peru in the Pacific Ocean at 15:23:29 local time", which is 20:23:29 UTC; the USGS^[2] catalogue records 20:23:30 UTC for event iscgem796163.

Start: May 31, 197090% CONFIDENCEfrom the source

The Ancash Earthquake Buries Yungay Under Huascaran

A magnitude 7.9 earthquake off the Peruvian coast shook loose part of Mount Huascaran, and the debris avalanche buried the town of Yungay. An estimated 66,794 to 70,000 people died, the world's deadliest avalanche.

The earthquake struck off the Peruvian coast on 31 May 1970 at 15:23:29 local time; the USGS catalogue puts it at magnitude 7.9 with an epicentre 34 km southwest of Chimbote. [S] [1]
Combined with the landslide it set off, it is the most catastrophic natural disaster in Peru's history. [S]
The landslide carried large amounts of snow and ice off Mount Huascaran and caused an estimated 66,794-70,000 deaths, making it the world's deadliest avalanche. [S]
The USGS catalogue records the event as iscgem796163 at a depth of 58.4 km. [1]

0

References 293% CONFIDENCE

The first entry is always the pin's source. Overall confidence is a weighted average of how firmly each reference supports the start and end times used above; a reference counts half as much for every 180 days older than the newest.

[1]90%
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1970_Ancash_earthquake
en.wikipedia.org· Posted Sep 21, 2026· Starts May 31, 1970 ✓· 50% of score
The source gives "31 May off the coast of Peru in the Pacific Ocean at 15:23:29 local time", which is 20:23:29 UTC; the USGS^[2] catalogue records 20:23:30 UTC for event iscgem796163.
[2]95%
M 7.9 - 34 km SW of Chimbote, Peru
earthquake.usgs.gov· Added Sep 21, 2026· 50% of score
The USGS catalogue entry for this event, the authority for its magnitude, origin time, depth and epicentre.

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