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The Spanish arrival in South America changed many things—including, it seems, even the Peruvian coastline.
西班牙人到达南美洲之后，许多事情都发生了变化—包括甚至秘鲁的海岸线。
In dry northwestern Peru, unusual 19-mile-long sandy coastal ridges were formed through tectonic activity, El Nino storms and natural sediment deposit.
在干燥的秘鲁西南部，通过板块运动，厄尔尼诺风暴以及自然沉积物的沉降作用，形成了一条19公里不寻常的沙滩海岸线。
The nine ridges still standing appear to have formed from 5,100 years ago until about 400 years ago.
直到400年前，这些形成于5100年前的9条沙滩山脊仍然屹立不倒。
And they're topped with deposits of shells, rocks from fire pits and other human artifacts.
它们顶部已经被贝壳，火山坑或者熔岩穴内的岩石以及其它人造物体覆盖。
Scientists studying the region found that the shells are from mollusks and barnacles, and primarily of species still fished there today.
经过对这片区域的研究，科学家们发现这些贝壳来自于软体动物和甲壳动物，即便是今时今日在该区域也还是能捕获到的一类主要海产品。
They thus concluded that the shells were left by native communities who long called the region home.
他们因此推断这些壳类是被以此地为家的本地居民遗留下的。
The researchers also found that the clamshell and fire deposits stabilized the ridges and protected them from erosion.
研究人员们还发现蚌类和火山沉降物稳定并且保护沙脊免收气候侵蚀。
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.
从400年前开始，在附近居民死于疾病或战乱或被迫迁到内陆以后，海岸沿线就不再有这类稳定存在的沙脊出现了。
Any incipient ridges since were easily toppled by wind and storms.
此后任何开始形成的沙脊都很容易被风暴所毁。
The research is in the Proceedings of the Natural Academy of Sciences.
这项研究已经在《自然科学研究》杂志上发表。
Visitors now see what they may think is a natural landscape.
旅游者们目前看到的景象或许会被当作天然地貌。
But its formation depended on thousands of years of human activity.
但其实可是由于几千年来的人类活动催化形成的产物。
