Detecting el Niño’s Disasters: Remote Sensing of Recent ENSO Events in Northern Peru and Implications for Prehispanic Societies

Summary

Several models have discussed links between warm (el Niño) phases of the el Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and cultural developments on Peru’s north coast. In particular, the abandonment of Moche settlements and agricultural systems and periods of social stress in both Moche and Chimu societies have been interpreted through the lens of ENSO disasters. ENSOs during the years 1982-83, 1997-98, and most recently 2016-17 offer the opportunity to better understand the spatial development of el Niño-driven events through remote sensing, and hence to better understand potential implications of ENSO for past and current communities. Here, we use data from the Landsat and Sentinel families of earth observation satellites to describe the extent and severity of these ENSO’s impacts on the Chicama and Jequetepeque Valleys (Department of La Libertad, Peru). We estimate the areas that are impacted by mass wasting and sediment entrainment, and describe the recovery time from past events. Comparisons of similar events across individual ENSO years show spatial patterning in the areas that are impacted by various ENSO-driven phenomena. We discuss the implications these findings have in light of archaeological land use, including identifying several vulnerabilities that may have affected prehispanic agriculture and settlement.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 22199