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

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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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