Abstract

In the Atacama Desert, northern Chile, some ephemeral channels are developed in the Plio-Quaternary alluvial sequence that caps the Neogene Atacama Gravels Formation. Geomorphological studies and high-resolution digital elevation data (GPS) along a structural transect in the Central Depression are used to document modern growth history of subtle folding and faulting in the fore-arc region. Outcrop data of the most recent deposits are combined with observations of warped and faulted late Quaternary pediments, alluvial fans and terrace surfaces to propose unsuspected neotectonic processes on the western flank of the Domeyko Cordillera. Neotectonic process recognition is here based largely upon the interpretation of alluvial landforms, drainage organisation and evolution as the intermittent river network shows systematic patterns of course deflections, successive incisions or deposition processes as it encounters the fault scarps or folds in the superficial deposits. This area presents both N-S-trending active vertical faults in the topographically higher pampas, and N-S-trending active folding in the lower pampas. These faults seem to accommodate E-W extension and compression that could be related to uplift of the western Andean margin within a compressive context. Uplift may have taken place unevenly over the past few million years after the deposition of the superficial alluvial surfaces that cap the Neogene Atacama Gravels. © 2003 John Wiley and Sons, Ltd.