![]() Geological Survey, topographic data from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM), and risk analysis courtesy of Kelsey Herndon and the NASA DEVELOP Program. NASA Earth Observatory images by Joshua Stevens, using Landsat data from the U.S. “Understanding the susceptibility of these sites to expanding infrastructure is more important now than ever as population pressures in the region increase and oil and gas exploration is on the rise.” “These maps are available to help the National Park Service better understand which sites could be prioritized for inclusion in future protected areas.” Herndon said. Of those, 19 are already protected by the National Park Service. They also considered the expected population growth for the area between 20.īy considering all of these factors, the team found that 44 of the 123 known Chaco sites included in the study are threatened by development. Herndon and her team determined these risk levels by considering an area’s proximity to modern roads, water features, and existing or planned oil and gas drilling operations. The second map shows the relative level of risk of disturbance from low (blue) to high (red) across the basin. High-resolution satellite imagery and models complement the excellent work being done by archaeologists on the ground and allow us to address this problem quickly over a large area.” “It would be extremely difficult and impractical to assess the susceptibility of all of these sites individually. “Using NASA Earth observations allowed us to really understand the scale of the potential damage to these ancient sites from oil and gas mining and encroaching settlements,” Herndon said. But sites outside the park boundaries are at risk of disturbance by modern infrastructure. Many of the Chacoan sites, concentrated in New Mexico within the boundaries of the Chaco Culture National Historical Park, are protected by federal law. ![]() The basin, outlined in the top map, spans about 19,400 square kilometers (7,500 square miles) of the Four Corners region of the American Southwest. They then applied a modeling technique to map the risk of disturbance to archaeological sites across the entire San Juan Basin. Led by Kelsey Herndon of the University of Alabama in Huntsville, the team used NASA satellite observations and other data to map the potential locations of yet undiscovered Chacoan sites. That was the approach in spring 2017 for a research team sponsored by NASA’s DEVELOP program. They have even probed the ancient DNA of human remains to learn more about the Chaco people and how they structured their society.īut while some archaeologists have boots on the ground, other researchers are learning about the ancient civilization with data collected from space. They have found a range of structures such as multi-story “great houses,” many connected by a network of roads. In modern times, researchers have been piecing together a picture of Chaco culture based on artifacts excavated across hundreds of archaeological sites. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), only 5% of the ocean floor has been mapped by modern sonar.The Chaco civilization flourished for hundreds of years in what is now the southwestern United States, reaching its height between about 10 CE. The satellite imagery that covers almost the entire ocean floor can resolve features down to about 0.9 miles (1.5 km), while modern seafloor sonar can reveal details on the order of 328 feet (100 m). Odd ocean floor shapes on Google Earth illustrate just how little is known about the seafloor. These long lines are visible all across the ocean floor on Google Earth, and are sometimes mistaken for signs of a lost civilization. Notably, the "UFO" spotted by Waring sits right in the middle of a transect line where a shipboard sonar survey has clearly passed, making it possible that the shape is a side effect of stitching together multiple data sources. At times, the rough satellite-based measurements and the shipboard measurements don't agree, and a single point of data from one or the other can lead to what looks like a steep hill or dip. These sonar surveys send pulses of sound down toward the ocean floor, then record the echoes to get a high-resolution picture. Aliens could be sucking energy from black holesįor more detailed mapping, the company gets data from ship-based sonar surveys. Once a powerful and far-reaching empire several thousand years ago, all that remains is ruins - such as the Ancient Warp Gates or the structures at Forlorn Vale. They appear to consist primarily of dark energy. ![]() 9 things we learned about aliens in 2021 Ancients are a mysterious ancient race and one of five known factions in the Everspace and Everspace 2 universe.
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