Huascarán or Mataraju is a mountain in the Peruvian province of Yungay, situated in the Cordillera Blanca range of the western Andes. The highest southern summit of Huascarán is the highest point in Peru, the northern Andes, and in all of the earth's Tropics.

When did huascarán last erupt?

On January 10, 1962, an avalanche on the slopes of an extinct volcano kills more than 4,000 people in Peru. Nine towns and seven smaller villages were destroyed. Mount Huascaran rises 22,000 feet above sea level in the Andes Mountains.

Is huascarán extinct?

Huascarán is all that is left of an extinct volcano. It has been getting smaller and smaller. As recently as 1970, the Ancash Earthquake caused a big part of the mountain to crumble and fall off. That part of the mountain was all rock and ice, and it killed almost 17,000 people in small towns around the mountain.