Literature Review 5

THE CORRELATION BETWEEN GEOGLYPHS AND SUBTERRANEAN WATER RESOURCES IN THE RIO GRANDE DE NAZCA DRAINAGE: LITERATURE REVIEW 

Map of the Rio Grande De Nazca Drainage in Peru

    For my final literature review, I selected a chapter from a book written by David Johnson, Donald Proulx, and Stephen Mabee titled The Correlation Between Geoglyphs and Subterranean Water Resources in the Rio Grande de Nazca Drainage (Chapter 10). In this article, they detailed the investigative methods used at five different sites to compare and contrast their findings. Included in the chapter is a detailed analysis of the study and statistical data of the Pampa de San Jose near Nazca.  In the study they applied standard hyrdogeological, geological, and geophysical techniques in addition to archaeological methods to either support or refute Johnson's hypothesis. 

    The authors of this chapter, Stephen Mabee, Donald Proulx, and David Johnson, are expert researchers and lead investigators of the research team investigating the correlation between geoglyphs and subterranean water resources in the Nazcan desert. Independently, Proulx conducted his own archaeological investigation of the Nazca region and was an expert on the archaeology and different cultures that inhabited the area, particularly the Nazca culture. Mabee is a geologist and a hydrogeologist who also returned to the Nazca drainage on his own to test the hypothesis with additional field investigations. Johnson also noted that this project led him back to Peru multiple times over the course of the next 10 years to conduct more studies. 

Quotes:

~ "...led Johnson to speculate that there must be an alternative source of groundwater entering the river valleys other than the subterranean water moving down the valley in the river gravels" (Johnson et al. 310). 

~ "Johnson noted a drainage-wide juxtaposition of ancient habitation sites in proximity to geoglyphs, geologic faults, aquifers, filtration galleries and high yield wells"  (Johnson et al. 310). 

~ "...Proulx has conducted an archaeological survey in the lower Nazca and Grande valleys while Johnson and Mabee have examined the geology of the subterranean hydrologic systems using a combination of geologic mapping, shallow subsurface geophysical techniques, surveying and water quality analysis" (Johnson et al. 312). 

Key Terms:

1. Faults: discontinuities in the bedrock that arise from tectonic forces causing the rocks in the earth's crust to shear and move, displacing one side of the fault relative to the other. 

2. Lineaments: a linear feature on the earth's surface, such as a fault.

3. Pampa:an extensive generally grass-covered plain of temperate South America east of the Andes : prairie.

This article is valuable to my research because it is a summary of the field survey that was performed to prove Johnson's hypothesis. By utilizing this article, I will be able to provide further evidence to support my argument. Finally, I can use the data supplied within the text to further illustrate that there is a correlation between the faults, subterranean water and habitation sites located with the five areas and beyond. 

Citation:

Johnson D.W., Proulx D.A., Mabee S.B. (2002) The Correlation Between Geoglyphs and Subterranean Water Resources in the Río Grande de Nazca Drainage. In: Silverman H., Isbell W.H. (eds) Andean Archaeology II. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-0597-6_12.