Fran's Blog

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

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

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

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

My sophomore year of high school my family decided to take a trip to Peru in order to visit family. Most of my dad’s side of the family lives in Cusco, Peru. While I was doing my research on recent floods in Peru I was devastated to learn that there was flooding due to heavy rainfall last April in Cusco. On the 19th of April, The National Meteorology and Hydrology Service of Peru sent out a report that 68mm of rain had fallen in the last 24 hours. There was an overflow in the Santa Fe and Otari rivers and one house was completely destroyed. Around 100 people were affected and landslides ended up affecting the roads.  A month prior, on March 13, 2021 in Piura located 534 miles north of Lima, citizens were desperately trying to cross a river to escape the horrible flooding. Back in 2017, around half the country of Peru was under a state of emergency  and more than 250,000 children were affected due to the abnormal warming of Pacific waters resulting in El Niño. Around 380 health faciliti

The most current active Volcano in Peru’s history is Ubinas which is known for it’s small to moderate explosive eruptions. Ubinas lies in the Ubinas District which is east of Arequipa in the Peruvian Western Cordillera. Ubinas belong to the central Volcanic Zone in the Peruvian Andes. The zone spreads out 1,500 kilometers long and contains 69 active volcanoes. From 2013 to 2017, a lava flow formed inside the crater and ash falls led to Peruvian citizens evacuating their hometowns near this zone. The volcanoes reach an elevation of 5,672 metres and the last eruption of a volcano in this district was in September 2019.  Of all the active volcanoes in Peru, the most dangerous are near the region of Arequipa and Moquegua. The “Ticsani volcano” which is located 60 km from the city of Moquegua is considered to be the second highest seismic activity volcano in Peru. The Chachani Volcano in Arequipa puts almost 200,000 inhabitants at risk due to its slopes near the city of Plaza de Armas. Over