RAPID: Characterizing El Nino Runoff And Sedimentation In Small Drainage Basins: A Geoarchaeological Study

现在公众都知道，El Niños在世界范围内产生了巨大的影响，但在许多方面，关于这些事件及其影响还有很多需要了解的地方。这个项目将帮助我们更好地了解过去的El Niños，以便人们可以更好地为未来做好准备。当来自南太平洋的暖流向东移动，覆盖沿着秘鲁海岸从南向北流动的洪堡洋流的冷水时，厄尔尼诺Niños就会发生。这给通常干旱的秘鲁海岸带来了降雨，给高原带来了干旱，但也影响了墨西哥、加勒比地区、美国甚至西欧的天气。El Niño-induced天气与这些地区的正常变化完全不同，通常会对经济和人类生活造成严重影响。因此，了解厄尔尼诺Niños在过去发生的时间、强度和频率对于帮助我们全面了解厄尔尼诺Niños以及学习如何避免或减轻其影响非常重要。哈佛大学的杰弗里·奎尔特博士将带领一个小型研究小组专注于秘鲁海岸El Niños的一个特定方面，这将产生重要的数据和信息。在15世纪，古秘鲁人在他们广阔的运河系统中建造了土制渡槽。这些渡槽穿过较大山谷的侧峡谷口，因此在Niño事件期间为流经它们的任何水建造了水坝。随着时间的推移，El Niño事件的沉积物在这些渡槽水坝后面堆积起来。虽然可以在相关沉积物中确定与厄尔尼诺有关的沉积物，但不可能确定与个别厄尔尼诺事件有关的速率。该合同将允许在多个水坝后面的区域安装测量设备，以确定在即将到来的厄尔尼诺季节预计会发生的强降雨造成的沉积物积聚。然后可以对这些沉积物进行分析，以更好地了解早期地层和沉积它们的El Niños。这项工作将与秘鲁当局合作完成，秘鲁当局将通过无人机技术监测事件的发生。

It is now well known by the general public that El Niños have dramatic impacts world wide yet, in many ways there is still much to learn about these events and their effects. This project will help us to better understand past El Niños so that one can better prepare for them in the future. El Niños occur when warm waters from the South Pacific travel eastwards and override the cold waters of the Humboldt Current that flows from south to north along the coast of Peru. This produces rains on the normally arid Peruvian coast and droughts in the highlands but also affects the weather in Mexico, the Caribbean, the United States, and even Western Europe. El Niño-induced weather is radically different from normal variations in these areas and usually results in severe impacts to economies and human lives. Knowing when El Niños occurred in the past, their intensities, and frequencies thus are important to help us understand El Niños in general and to learn how to avoid or mitigate their impacts. Dr. Jeffrey Quilter of Harvard University will direct a small research team to focus on a specific aspect of El Niños on the coast of Peru that will produce important data and information. In the 15th century, ancient Peruvians built earthen aqueducts in their extensive canal systems. These aqueducts cut across the mouths of side canyons in larger valleys, thus creating dams for any water flowing through them during El Niño events. Over time, sediments from El Niño events were built up behind these aqueduct-dams. While el Nino related sediments can be identified in relevant deposits it is not possible to determine rates associated with individual el Nino events. This award will permit measuring devices to be installed in areas behind multiple dams to determine sediment buildup resulting from heavy rainfall predicted to occur during the upcoming el Nino season. These deposits can then be analyzed to better understand earlier strata and the El Niños that deposited them. This work will be done in cooperation with Peruvian authorities who will monitor the events via drone technology as they happen.