South America’s Biggest Volcanic Eruption

Fortunately, recovery from the eruption in and around Arequipa did not take too long, perhaps because the area was not highly developed and the work of restoration consisted mainly of removing ash and other volcanic debris. During the eruption, ash had been falling so fast that the mayor of Arequipa gave orders to clear the roofs to protect them from collapsing. About three feet had fallen on the city by the time the eruption began to subside. For the cleanup the Spanish Commander commandeered six hundred natives and forty soldiers to clear the ground and rebuild the homes and public buildings. The work took a few years and Arequipa became known as the white city because of the volcanic stones used in construction; they were whitish in color and very hard, unlike pumice. It seems strange to use volcanic rock as the building material for a city destroyed by a volcanic eruption. Viticulture was a well-known traditional industry of the area and a particular tragedy was the loss of grape crops as a result of the ash fall. Seventeen years after the eruption, a visitor noted that very little development of agriculture had occurred since the eruption and no evidence anywhere of a revival of viticulture.