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The Spanish arrival in South America changed many things—including, it seems, even the Peruvian coastline.
西班牙人到達(dá)南美洲之后，許多事情都發(fā)生了變化—包括甚至秘魯?shù)暮０毒€。
In dry northwestern Peru, unusual 19-mile-long sandy coastal ridges were formed through tectonic activity, El Nino storms and natural sediment deposit.
在干燥的秘魯西南部，通過板塊運(yùn)動，厄爾尼諾風(fēng)暴以及自然沉積物的沉降作用，形成了一條19公里不尋常的沙灘海岸線。
The nine ridges still standing appear to have formed from 5,100 years ago until about 400 years ago.
直到400年前，這些形成于5100年前的9條沙灘山脊仍然屹立不倒。
And they're topped with deposits of shells, rocks from fire pits and other human artifacts.
它們頂部已經(jīng)被貝殼，火山坑或者熔巖穴內(nèi)的巖石以及其它人造物體覆蓋。
Scientists studying the region found that the shells are from mollusks and barnacles, and primarily of species still fished there today.
經(jīng)過對這片區(qū)域的研究，科學(xué)家們發(fā)現(xiàn)這些貝殼來自于軟體動物和甲殼動物，即便是今時(shí)今日在該區(qū)域也還是能捕獲到的一類主要海產(chǎn)品。
They thus concluded that the shells were left by native communities who long called the region home.
他們因此推斷這些殼類是被以此地為家的本地居民遺留下的。
The researchers also found that the clamshell and fire deposits stabilized the ridges and protected them from erosion.
研究人員們還發(fā)現(xiàn)蚌類和火山沉降物穩(wěn)定并且保護(hù)沙脊免收氣候侵蝕。
No such stable ridges exist along the coast from the past 400 years, after the local people died from disease or war, or were pushed inland.
從400年前開始，在附近居民死于疾病或戰(zhàn)亂或被迫遷到內(nèi)陸以后，海岸沿線就不再有這類穩(wěn)定存在的沙脊出現(xiàn)了。
Any incipient ridges since were easily toppled by wind and storms.
此后任何開始形成的沙脊都很容易被風(fēng)暴所毀。
The research is in the Proceedings of the Natural Academy of Sciences.
這項(xiàng)研究已經(jīng)在《自然科學(xué)研究》雜志上發(fā)表。
Visitors now see what they may think is a natural landscape.
旅游者們目前看到的景象或許會被當(dāng)作天然地貌。
But its formation depended on thousands of years of human activity.
但其實(shí)可是由于幾千年來的人類活動催化形成的產(chǎn)物。
