WORLD HISTORY

The 1970 Earthquake That Took the Lives of 70,000 People in 45 Seconds

Only a statue of Christ was left standing in the rubble

By Roba7400, Creative Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

It must have been so terrifying on an ill-fated afternoon in May 1970, when an unthinkable tragedy struck. Way out into the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of Peru, an undersea earthquake with a magnitude of…