Shady, Sandweiss, Moseley, and two other U.S. researchers have established that a sudden bout of earthquakes and El Niño flooding in about 1800 B.C. led to devastating landslides in Caral; meanwhile, Aspero, at the mouth of the river, was choked in sand. If these climatic and geological disasters occurred throughout the Norte Chico, they could have brought to an end
