"This landscape has stayed the same for 25 million years," says archaeologist Gonzálo Pimentel of Chile's Atacama Desert. The blistering sun and scant rain have left the desert little changed until about a thousand years ago, when ancient Indigenous peoples began carving massive geoglyphs—depictions of people, animals, and objects—into the slopes of Alto Barranco, possibly to serve as geographical guides. The modern era has brought a second, much less welcome, wave of changes: tire tracks left by racers who tear through the area—and the geoglyphs themselves—on motorcycles and 4x4s, both with and without permission.
The New York Times reports drone footage captured by Pimentel shows just how scarred the landscape has become—and irreversibly so. The same conditions that preserved the geoglyphs will keep the tire tracks in place as well. (See photos here.) The Times report points a finger at organizers of the rallies that take place there and attract hundreds; those organizers say their routes were green-lit by regional authorities, who in turn complain that race officials didn't turn over GPS data. Rally organizers also place blame on the many motorcycle and jeep rental outfits who enable racers to set off into the desert on their own.
The head of the Chilean Society of Archaeology points out that large signs warn drivers of areas with geoglyphs. Plus, they're "gigantic," she says, with some measuring 100 feet, per El Pais. "No one can claim they didn't see them." The government is currently looking at ways to bolster signage and protect what remains. This year's Atacama Rally, which happened in early September, was moved about 600 miles—to an area with important archaeological and paleontological sites of its own. (More geoglyphs stories.)
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