Field work in the Atacama desert
Avatar

Field work in the Atacama desert

by Robin Lacassin

A team of geologist from the University of Chile and the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (IPGP) study the tectonics of the western Andean front in the Atacama desert of North Chile. A major west-vergent thrust brings the Paleozoic metamorphic rocks that form the mountains in the back onto folded mesozoic sediments in the foreground. Our working hypothesis is that Andean relief building started there ~60-50 Ma ago.