Unearthing the climate history of the Atacama Desert in northern Chile - deep drilling in two clay pans of the Coastal Cordillera
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| Title: | Main Title: Unearthing the climate history of the Atacama Desert in northern Chile - deep drilling in two clay pans of the Coastal Cordillera |
| Description: | Abstract: The Atacama Desert is one of the driest deserts on Earth with a predominantly hyperarid climate at least since the Miocene. Geological evidence, however, indicates that this overall hyperaridity was repeatedly interrupted by wetter periods. Deep-time precipitation reconstructions of the Atacama Desert are limited by scarce and discontinuous sediment sequences, most of which received moisture from wetter regions outside the Atacama Desert. Longer archives of the precipitation history in the desert interior during the Neogene are unfortunately extremely rare. The sediment records of two tectonically blocked endorheic basins (a.k.a clay pans) in the Coastal Cordillera of northern Chile may fill the gaps in the paleo-precipitation record of the Atacama Desert. Comprehensive investigations of both clay pans applied intensive geological and geophysical site surveys and deep drilling operations with subsequent downhole logging. Short pilot cores of up to 6.2 m in length already showed highly variable sediment successions reflecting strong hydroclimatic fluctuations on glacial/interglacial timescales. Electromagnetic and seismic surveys yielded a three-layer structure in both basins consisting of the resistive basement overlain by a low-resistivity basal and a highly resistive upper sediment unit with total sediment thicknesses of more than ∼100 and ∼160 m in the Playa Adamito Grande (PAG) and Paranal clay pans, respectively. Assuming similar sedimentation rates as the pilot cores, this would imply that the sediment records of both clay pans span several million years. Lithological data and downhole-logging results of the deep-drilling operations reveal strong heterogeneities in the sediment composition that presumably can be traced back to major climatic and/or tectonic shifts in the catchments of the clay pans. Whereas the fine-grained sediments at the base of the PAG sequence suggest longer-lasting lacustrine sedimentation with enhanced evaporative episodes, the lower sediment package in the core from the Paranal clay pan consists of fluvial conglomerates and sandstones. Both lacustrine and fluvial sediments indicate less arid conditions in the central Atacama Desert than today. Separated by distinct lithological boundaries, the upper sediments in both clay pans show several similar sediment facies typical for alluvial-fan deposition, e.g., proximal mud and debris flows, sheetfloods, and distal alluvial sediment flows, but also pedogenic calcium sulfates. The shift to a predominant alluvial-fan deposition, which is common after torrential rainfall in the Atacama Desert today, implies a general modification in the environmental conditions of the study areas. These initial results already highlight the potential of the sediment records from the PAG and Paranal clay pans to provide unprecedented information on the Neogene precipitation history in the hyperarid core of the Atacama Desert. |
| Identifier: | 10.5880/CRC1211DB.88 (DOI) |
| Related Resources: | Is Supplemented By Dataset 10.5880/CRC1211DB.86 (DOI) Is Supplemented By Dataset 10.5880/CRC1211DB.87 (DOI) Is Supplemented By Dataset 10.5880/CRC1211DB.89 (DOI) |
| Citation Advice: | This is a preprint of the revised version submitted to Scientific Drilling |
Responsible Party
| Creators: | Volker Wennrich (Author), Julia Diederich-Leicher (Author), Benedikt Ritter (Author) |
| Contributors: | Julia Diederich-Leicher (Data Collector), Barbara Blanco (Data Collector), Christoph Büttner (Data Collector), Stefan Buske (Data Collector), Eduardo Campos (Data Collector), Tibor Dunai (Data Collector), Jacob Feller (Data Collector), Emma Fernández-Galego (Data Collector), Ascelina Hasberg (Data Collector), Niklas Leicher (Data Collector), Damián Alejandro López (Data Collector), Jorge Maldonado (Data Collector), Alicia Medialdea (Data Collector), Lukas Ninnemann (Data Collector), Russell Perryman (Data Collector), Juan Cristóbal Ríos Contesse (Data Collector), Benedikt Ritter (Data Collector), Stephanie Scheidt (Data Collector), Barbara Vargas-Machuca (Data Collector), Pritam Yogeshwar (Data Collector), Martin Melles (Project Leader) |
| Funding Reference: | Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG): CRC 1211: Earth - Evolution at the Dry Limit |
| Publisher: | Copernicus |
| Publication Year: | 2025 |
Topic
| CRC1211 Topic: | Climate |
| Related Subprojects: | A2, D5, D7 |
| Subjects: | Keywords: Paleoclimate Proxies, Drill Core |
| Geogr. Information Topic: | Climatology/Meteorology/Atmosphere |
File Details
| Filename: | Wennrich_et_al._SD_resubmission.pdf |
| Data Type: | Data Paper - Paper Preprint |
| File Size: | 18.6 MB |
| Date: | Available: 04.07.2025 |
| Mime Type: | application/pdf |
| Data Format: | |
| Language: | English |
| Status: | In Process |
Constraints
| Download Permission: | Free |
| General Access and Use Conditions: | According to the CRC1211DB data policy agreement. |
| Access Limitations: | According to the CRC1211DB data policy agreement. |
| Licence: | [CRC1211DB] Data policy agreement |
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Specific Information - Publication
| Publication Status: | Accepted |
| Review Status: | Peer reviewed |
| Publication Type: | Article |
| Article Type: | Journal |
| Source: | Scientific Drilling |
| Number of Pages: | 28 (1 - 28) |
Metadata Details
| Metadata Creator: | Volker Wennrich |
| Metadata Created: | 04.07.2025 |
| Metadata Last Updated: | 16.07.2025 |
| Subproject: | A2 |
| Funding Phase: | 2 |
| Metadata Language: | English |
| Metadata Version: | V50 |
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| Page Visits: | 226 |
| Metadata Downloads: | 0 |
| Dataset Downloads: | 9 |
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