Near the Coast of Peru 1966 October 17 21:41 UTC This
earthquake, centering just off the coast from Callao, claimed
about 125 lives and injured some 3,000 persons. The town of
Huacho was the most severely damaged with over 20,000
inhabitants left homeless. A religious festival was being held
in Callao and several were killed when some of the churches
collapsed. One street in this city was split by a chasm several
feet wide. In Lima, 2,300 houses suffered severe structural
damage. Cars were tossed about, cornices plunged into streets,
and traffic was snarled for hours. Landslides and huge ground
cracks were reported along the Pan American Highway north of
Ancon. This shock generated a tsunami with heights of 11.3 feet
at La Punta-Callao. Abridged from Earthquake Information
Bulletin, Volume 1, Number 1, March 1967, and United States
Earthquakes, 1966.