Peru is a land of contrasts, with natural hazards occurring in coastal deserts, high Andean mountains, and humid Amazon lowlands. Increasingly, however, population growth exposes more people to risks as cities spread and as land use must intensify. These social features interact with a heterogeneous distribution of seismic risks shaped by the way the Nazca plate subducts, causing earthquakes to occur throughout the mountains and on the coast, with active volcanoes in the south. Landscapes are shaped not only by catastrophic events such as landslides, but also by soil erosion and fluvial transport. In Peru, rains and floods during an El Niño year can rearrange surface features, in addition to destroying houses and infrastructure. Even if people perceive, recognize, and acknowledge the presence of risks from these natural hazards, they are often constrained in the way they can or will respond. Vulnerabilities in Peru to natural hazards are amplified by poverty and by a disconnection between what science can predict and what people will do. © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.