On May 31, 1970, an earthquake in the Peruvian Andes dislodged a mass of ice and rubble that careened down the mountainside, scouring out the contents of the valley below. The greatest recorded natural disaster of the Western hemisphere, it claimed 75,000 lives. Anthropologist Barbara Bode studied the effects of the disaster - how the victims survived; how they coped or didn't cope with loss of family and homes; the rifts in the church; and the breakdown of social classes in the aftermath.