Qualla: 1687 Peru Earthquake

1687 Peru Earthquake: Introduction

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

On the morning of October 20, 1687, the ground beneath Peru's southern coast began to move. What followed was not one catastrophe but a cascade of them: an earthquake estimated at magnitude 8.4 to 8.7, a tsunami that swept the port of Pisco off the map, and -- in a slower-moving disaster that unfolded over years -- the permanent collapse of Peru's wine industry, then the largest in the Americas. About 5,000 people died. The shock was powerful enough to generate tsunami waves that crossed the Pacific Ocean and struck Japan, producing runups measured in tens of meters on shores more than 14,000 kilometers away.

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1687 Peru Earthquake: Where the Plates Collide

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The 1687 earthquake originated along one of the most seismically violent boundaries on Earth: the subduction zone where the Nazca Plate dives beneath the South American Plate. This is the engine that built the Andes. Along Peru's and Chile's coasts, the collision generates megath...

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1687 Peru Earthquake: Pisco Swept Away

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The port city of Pisco bore the worst of it. The earthquake shattered buildings throughout the town, and the tsunami that followed erased what remained. Contemporary accounts describe at least three ships being carried over the ruins of the city by the wave -- not dashed against ...

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1687 Peru Earthquake: The Vintages That Never Returned

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Peru's central and southern coast was the principal wine-growing region of the entire Western Hemisphere. The area around Ica and Pisco -- the same city that would later give its name to Peru's national spirit -- contained the largest c...

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1687 Peru Earthquake: Echoes Across the Ocean

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Perhaps the most remarkable measure of the earthquake's power is where its effects were felt last. The tsunami it generated traveled westward across the Pacific and struck the coast of Japan, producing runups of tens of meters -- a journey of more than 14,000 kilometers from the ...

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