Some recent approaches to the problem of the geomorphologic evolution of the Pampa del Tamarugal (Northern Chile)

Abstract

The Tamarugal pampa is an arid and almost flat territory, located in northern Chile, which has evolved since the Middle Tertiary to date, under the effects of block tectonics and a relative dominance of pre-Cordilleran flexures. More than a zonal desert, it is presented as a landscape whose surface is remotely controlled by endogenous forces. 

The abundance or scarcity of water is not directly linked to the wet or dry climate, since the phreatic system depends on the infiltration of the altiplanic system. In this sense, the disposition of the lithological layers, the deformations that they present, the faults and flexures, the diaclases that run through the recent formations and the Quaternary neotectonics, are all factors that imprison or allow the hypodermic and subterranean runoff. 

Geomorphological investigations make it possible to ensure correlations between climatic and subsoil factors, revealing the internal contradictions of the natural mechanisms and facilitating, on the other hand, the intervention of man in the appropriate places.