[6] In 1885, rebel Indians under the guidance of Pedro Pablo Atusparía besieged Yungay, during the indigenous rebellion of Huaraz.

[7][8] In 1962, two American scientists, David Bernays and Charles Sawyer, had reported seeing a massive vertical slab of rock being undermined by a glacier on mount Huascarán Norte, which threatened to fall and cause the obliteration of Yungay.

According to Sawyer, when this was reported in the Expreso newspaper (27 September 1962), the government ordered them to retract or face prison, and they fled the country.

[11] More than 50 million cubic meters of debris slid approximately 15 kilometers downhill at an angle of about 14 degrees.

The Peruvian government has forbidden excavation in the area where the old town of Yungay is buried, declaring it a national cemetery.

After its destruction, its surviving inhabitants moved into temporary tents until 1971, when construction of new wooden and brick houses began and eventually developed into a new town with the same name.