Articles | Volume 13, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-13-257-2025
https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-13-257-2025
Research article
 | 
27 Mar 2025
Research article |  | 27 Mar 2025

Haloturbation in the northern Atacama Desert revealed by a hidden subsurface network of calcium sulfate wedges

Aline Zinelabedin, Joel Mohren, Maria Wierzbicka-Wieczorek, Tibor Janos Dunai, Stefan Heinze, and Benedikt Ritter

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Cited articles

Alewell, C., Pitois, A., Meusburger, K., Ketterer, M., and Mabit, L.: 239+240Pu from “contaminant” to soil erosion tracer: Where do we stand?, Earth Sci. Rev., 172, 107–123, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2017.07.009, 2017. 
Allmendinger, R. W. and González, G.: Invited review paper: Neogene to Quaternary tectonics of the Coastal Cordillera, Northern Chile, Tectonophysics, 495, 93–110, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tecto.2009.04.019, 2010. 
Amit, R., Gerson, R., and Yaalon, D. H.: Stages and rate of the gravel shattering process by salts in desert Reg Soils, Geoderma, 57, 295–324, https://doi.org/10.1016/0016-7061(93)90011-9, 1993. 
Amundson, R.: Meteoric water alteration of soil and landscapes at Meridiani Planum, Mars, Earth Plane. Sci. Lett., 488, 155–167, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2018.02.012, 2018. 
Arens, F. L., Airo, A., Feige, J., Sager, C., Wiechert, U., and Schulze-Makuch, D.: Geochemical proxies for water-soil interactions in the hyperarid Atacama Desert, Chile, CATENA, 206, 105531, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.catena.2021.105531, 2021. 
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Short summary
In order to interpret the formation processes of subsurface salt wedges and polygonal patterned grounds from the northern Atacama Desert, we present a multi-methodological approach. Due to the high salt content of the wedges, we suggest that their formation is dominated by subsurface salt dynamics requiring moisture. We assume that the climatic conditions during the wedge growth were slightly wetter than today, offering the potential to use the wedges as palaeoclimate archives.
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