Human Interaction with Glacier-Related Hazards in the Cordillera Blanca

The Cordillera Blanca, the adjacent Callejón de Huaylas valley on its western side and the valleys of the Conchucos region on its eastern side have been subject to numerous glacier-related and mass movement events over their lengthy geologic history, but especially over the last century. The earliest historical events occurred in the eighteenth century. However, documentation for events before about 1950 is often sketchy, not entirely verifiable and may not cover many aspects of the specific effects on human populations. Ongoing historical investigation provides a fuller and more accurate description of some of these events, especially for those that resulted in significant loss of human lives. Better information can lead to a better understanding of the human impacts and of the ways that future events of these types can be prepared for and their negative effects avoided or mitigated to some degree. Nevertheless, possible mitigation depends on public awareness and cooperation, which is not easy to maintain many decades after the major disastrous events occurred.