A Volcano in South America Killed Millions in Russia
Four centuries ago, a South American volcano went off in a catastrophic eruption, with catastrophic consequences as far away as the opposite side of the globe. That volcano, Huaynaputina, is situated in the Andean Mountains, in the southern Peruvian uplands, roughly fifty miles from the city of Arequipa. The cliche of primitive natives sacrificing humans to volcanoes is not so cliche when it comes to this volcano. Native tribes in Huaynaputina’s vicinity actually did make such sacrifices, until the Spanish put a halt to that after conquering Peru and introducing Catholicism.
Catastrophe struck after the sacrifices stopped, however, so maybe the natives had been on to something. On February 19th, 1600, Huaynaputina exploded in the most massive volcanic eruption ever experienced in South America within recorded history. Understandably, the natives drew a link between the end of the sacrifices and the volcanic eruption, reasoning that the lack of sacrifices must have offended and angered Supay, their god of death.
Booms and rumbles had been heard in the days before Huaynuptina exploded, and witnesses recalled seeing fog and gasses spewing from the volcano’s crater. A local Catholic priest reported frightened natives, recently converted to Christianity, falling back on their old religious beliefs and traditions. Shamans, who had not been seen for years, scrambled to appease the volcano, preparing plants, flowers, pets, and virgin girls for sacrifice. However, the volcano spewed hot ash during the sacrifice ceremony. The natives took that as a sign that the gods were too angry to be appeased by belated sacrifices, after having being ignored for so long.
Volcanic and seismic activity continued and increased, and by February 15th, 1600, earthquakes were shaking the region. By the 18th, tremors were being felt every four or five minutes, some of them powerful enough to shake those who had managed to sleep into wakefulness. Finally, around 5PM on February 19th, Huaynaputina erupted, sending a column of steam and ash high into the skies.
Those who heard it described the sound as that of giant cannons going off. Streams of lava began flowing down the mountainside, and when they reached the nearby Rio Tambo river, they created lahars – mudflows of volcanic slurry, debris, and water. Volcanic ash began falling down, and within a day, the city of Arequipa, 50 miles away, was covered by ash almost a foot deep. Falling ash was recorded over 300 miles away, in Chile and Bolivia. Smaller eruptions continued for the next couple of weeks, until the volcano finally quieted down on March 5th.
In the eruption, lava flowed about ten miles from the volcano, while lahars, or mud slides, made it all the way to the Pacific Ocean, 75 miles away. Several villages were destroyed, while the earthquakes stemming from the eruption caused significant damage in Arequipa and nearby towns. About 15,000 people were killed in the immediate region. However, they were but a tiny fraction of the total casualties caused by the eruption.
Ashes from Huaynaputina spread into the atmosphere, and wreaked havoc in the northern hemisphere, where temperatures saw a significant drop. In Russia, for example, the year after the eruption, 1601 was the coldest year in six centuries. That led to widespread crop failures, resulting in the Russian Famine of 1601 – 1603, in which two million people, or a third of Russia’s total population at the time, perished.