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Final Blog Post: Peru

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Hello everyone! I can’t believe this is the last blog post of the semester. I truly enjoyed learning about the country of Peru and I’m excited to summarize to you what I learned. Peru is known to be a seismic country and has a history of consequential earthquakes. The main natural hazard in Peru are the ongoing earthquakes that hit along the Andes mountains towards the coast. Due to Peru lying on top of the Ring of Fire and the Nazca Plate, earthquakes can commonly hit the country with a magnitude of over 8.0 and cause destructive damage. Earthquakes in Peru are a priority to address because in the country’s past, powerful earthquakes have covered and swept away mountain towns. I remember learning earlier this year about how the entire town of Yungay got covered due to a massive landslide reaction after an earthquake in 1970.  One of the recommendations I would address in order to avoid the hazardous earthquakes is to have a plan correlated with your family just in case one hits unexpe
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Week 15: Wildfires/Droughts

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Due to the weather change and human activity in Peru, the country has experienced thousands of wildfire outbreaks this past and current year. According to statista.com, Peru experienced 16,670 wildfire outbreaks in 2020. Statistically this year from January to October 2021, there have been 10,460 wildfires to date. In comparison to its bordering countries (Ecuador and Brazil) Peru has a significantly higher number of wildfires.  One of the most vivid and probable places for a fire in the country is the Peruvian Amazon. In 2019 a huge fire swept through Iquitos (Amazonian jungle city) burning many houses down. Other common places in Peru that have been ignited by fire since July 2021 are the cities of Cusco (32 wildfires), Ayacucho (14 wildfires), and Huanuco and Puno (12 wildfires each). According to andina.com, the National Forest and Wildlife Service many of the fires have been due to farmers burning pasture and stubble.  In order to stop the fires and make change, the Agriculture Mi
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Week 13: Coastal Erosion

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The Coast of Peru is known for its rocky and mountainous appearance that runs from Ecuador all the way to Chile. The coastline expands over 1,500 miles and holds diverse beaches from the Humboldt current to the northern dry tropical forest shore. Although Peru holds a significantly impressive coast, the area is very sensitive to the erosive action of wind. It’s common for El Niño to disturb the coast of Peru. These regions are also characterized to be mildly cold temperatures (14C) and with the occasional high temperature (84F). The central/southern coast gets hit more intensely by wind erosion while the northern coast suffers more with tropical dry climate and mixed wind erosion signals. I couldn’t find any post listing information on the latest coastal hazard in the Peruvian Coast but I did find out that the area has a very high erosive sensitivity to wind (as you can see in the picture provided below). Thank you.  Work Cited: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_Peru https://t
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Week 11: Cyclones

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The country I have been researching this semester is Peru. I was looking into the history of hurricanes in Peru and significantly found that due to the country’s cooled coastal waters there are rarely any hurricanes that hit the country. So, I started looking in the complete opposite area of the world and ended up finding out about ‘Hurricane Bawbag” that hit Scotland in 2011. On December 7th 2011, Cyclone Friedhelm (also nicknamed Hurricane Bawbag) created rough seas and created hurricane-force winds to Scotland.  The Hurricane was dubbed “Hurricane Bawbag” by Scottish citizens as an insult and slang. The hashtag “#HurricaneBawbag” became trending on twitter  and raised a few confused looks. The hurricane started trending and Scottish citizens were saying how proud they are to be Scottish due to the creativity of the name.  There was a red weather warning issued towards Central Scotland. The hurricane was formed when a cyclone on the West of Scotland hit warmer air coming up from the
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Week 10: Extreme Weather

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Heavy rainfall is one of the most critical and devastating weather that continues affecting Southern Peru. This is causing rivers to overflow, triggering many floods, and creating landslides in the Andes mountains. The weather varies in Peru but the changes in altitude are so extreme that the climate can go from excruciatingly hot to freezing snow.  The country of Peru presented their “National Registry of Mitigation Measures” in September of last year participating with NYC Climate Week. The purpose of this action is to “collect, register, monitor, and manage information on emission reductions. Peru is wanting to standardize the content of mitigation measures for; energy, forest, etc. Also, due to Peru’s sensitivity to droughts and floods, the government is hoping to install reservoirs in the mountain ranges. Nieto quoted, “That way we would guarantee our water supply so that rains become a blessing rather than a problem.” Work Cited: https://www.globalcompliancenews.com/2020/12/01/pe
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Week 9: Subsidence

The soils that make up the country of Peru are moderately well drained and consist of sandy consistency. The soil is deep to dense  and slope ranges from “0 to 60 percent”. The texture is typically “sandy loam” and the rocks most common in the soil are gravel with some cobblestones.  Due to Peru's geographic spot it is sensitive to wind/water erosion ultimately causing soil erosion. The coast of Peru receives a lot of high winds and rainfall resulting in change of the country’s soil.But the country has tried to minimize the soil erosion problem by covering crops and using contour lines to control erosion Other traditional methods the country has been using is terracing and agroforestry.  On the topic of soil issues in Peru, in 2016 a sinkhole opened up due to heavy rainfall and swallowed a car with a two year old girl inside of it. Thankfully the two parents and the little girl made it out alive but the news went viral around the world.  Work Cited:  https://www.independent.co.uk/n
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Week 8: Mass Wasting

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In Peru the occurrence of mass movement is very common in the Andes mountain area of the country. Landslides are a recurrence and have been affecting Peru since many years back. Today I wanted to present to you about three different landslides that hit the country of Peru in the past and earlier this year in 2021.  Due to Peru’s steep mountain range and frequent earthquakes, mass wasting disasters have emanated from Nevados Huascaran (known as a tall mountain peak). In 1962, an avalanche from this peak fell at an average of 105 miles per hour and had a volume of 16,900,000 cubic yards. The debris from the avalanche buried the village of Ran-rahirca and killed 5,000 citizens. Eight years later, history repeated itself because a 7.7 magnitude earthquake hit Nevados Huascaran and the avalanche fell at 174 miles per hour. The debris ended up covering the town of Yungay and the death count was at 18,000. It seems that the Andes mountains are a common place for mass wasting and towns in this
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