8. Peru’s Human Sacrifice Volcano
50 miles from the city of Arequipa in Peru is Huaynaputina, an Andean Mountains volcano. The cliché of natives making human sacrifices to volcanoes is neither cliché or mythical when it comes to Huaynaputina: such sacrifices actually were made to this volcano. The Spanish put a halt to such practices after they conquered Peru and introduced Catholicism.
However, considering what happened not long after the sacrifices stopped, maybe the natives had been on to something. On February 19th, 1600, Huaynaputina exploded in the biggest volcanic eruption ever experienced in South America during recorded history. The consequences were catastrophic locally, and produced negative impacts worldwide, including the killing of millions of Russians thousands of miles away. Naturally, the natives concluded that the end of the sacrifices had angered Supay, their god of death, who expressed his displeasure with the massive eruption.