Review
Version 1
Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed
Landscape Modifications ascribed to El Niño Events in Late pre-Hispanic Coastal Peru
Version 1
: Received: 27 October 2022 / Approved: 28 October 2022 / Online: 28 October 2022 (07:09:58 CEST)
A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.
Delle Rose, M. Landscape Modifications Ascribed to El Niño Events in Late Pre-Hispanic Coastal Peru. Land 2022, 11, 2207. Delle Rose, M. Landscape Modifications Ascribed to El Niño Events in Late Pre-Hispanic Coastal Peru. Land 2022, 11, 2207.
Abstract
The coastal Peru, one of the driest deserts in the world, has recently experienced dramatic landscape changes and asset destruction during precipitation events due to El Niño. Nevertheless, catastrophic explanations for landscape variations and human responses to the so-called "Super" or "Mega" El Niños are recurrent in pre-Hispanic time, even if alternative hypotheses were provided in literature. A deeper understanding of the geological and archaeological record can improve the knowledge on the relationship between such a coupled atmosphere-ocean phenomenon and landscape processes. The bibliographic sources required for this purpose are scattered throughout various disciplines ranging from physical to human sciences, thus comprehensive databases were used to identify and screen the relevant studies. The results provide knowledge synthesis in order to identify critical gaps and suggest specific research goals. Inferred episodes of landscape change due to severe precipitations in late pre-Hispanic time are discussed and consistencies and inconsistencies exposed. Examples of variation in landscape response due to extensive human intervention are reported.
Keywords
Desert landscape; Coastal plain; Paleoflood record; El Niño proxies; Debris flow; Slack-water deposit; Braided streams; Desert pavement; Regolith denudation
Subject
Environmental and Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Geology
Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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