Video: 'Earthquake in Peru - 1970 | Today In History | 31 May 18'

(Sunday, May 31, 1970, 3:23:29 p.m. EDT; during the 1970 Ancash earthquake) — A magnitude 7.9 earthquake (also known as the Great Peruvian earthquake) struck 22 miles off the coast of Casma and Chimbote, Peru, in the Pacific Ocean this afternoon, bringing down homes and buildings and leaving dead and injured in an area spanning half the country.

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Combined with a resultant landslide, it was the most catastrophic natural disaster in the history of Peru.

Due to the large amounts of snow and ice included in the landslide that caused an estimate of 66,794 to 70,000 casualties, it is also considered to be the world’s deadliest avalanche.