Edwin Simbaña

Pontifical Catholic University of Peru | PUCP

In Ecuador, a country with numerous potentially active volcanoes, recurrent large earthquakes, and regular climate-related events, it is surmised that phenomena such as debris flows have affected pre-Hispanic populations since their settlement in ∼5000 cal BC. Here, using a multidisciplinary approach, we studied the most recent debris flow events t...

Since approx. 800 A.D. until Inca invasion in 1500, the Caranqui culture occupied the region where nowadays the city of Cayambe (Ecuador) is located. Their settlements expanded uphill along the western flanks of the Cayambe volcano, following the Blanco River, where agricultural land is most productive. Cayambe volcano, with several eruptions over...

Their settlements expanded uphill along the river Blanco, where agricultural land was most productive, i.e. La Remonta area. The Cayambe volcano, having had various eruptions over the last 4000 years, must have posed many challenges to prehispanic populations inhabiting this zone. Since the river Blanco acts as one of the main drainage systems of t...