Lateglacial,early and middle holocene environments,human occupation,and resource use in the Atacama (Northern Chile)

Paleoenvironmental data from the Atacama Altiplano (21°–24°S) indicate that water, vegetation and animal resources were more abundant during lateglacial and early Holocene times than today. The rate of precipitation increased above 4000 m elevation to 400–500 mm/yr compared to the present 200 mm/yr. Dry conditions prevailed below 3500 m. Evidence of Paleoindian habitation is still missing, even though there is no evidence for environmental prohibitors during lateglacial time. The early Archaic hunters (10,820 yr B.P.-ca. 8500 yr B.P.) inhabited the Altiplano (high Puna) and its western slope, where water was available due to higher river runoff from the Altiplano, and the resources in different elevation zones were accessible. Natural resources decreased significantly during the middle Archaic period (8500-ca. 5000 yr B.P.). Lakes receded to today's levels, pedogenesis in the Altiplano terminated, and human activities were restricted to the most stable sites in the Río Lao and the Río Purifica catchments north of 23°S. The less stable oases south of 23°S (Salar de Atacama and Punta Negra) were abandoned. The climatic changes are best explained by shifts of the (sub)tropical circulation. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Contrasting beach-ridge systems in different types of coastal settings

Beach-ridge systems are geomorphological features common in every type of coast and have been widely interpreted as geo-archives of past sea-level, climatic, or tectonic changes. These relict morphological elements are well-known by their facies, architecture, stratigraphy, and evolution. However, the coastal context where beach ridges are formed has never been evaluated. Coastal beach-ridge systems were classified into four main types corresponding to deltaic strandplains, non-deltaic strandplains, spits, and barrier islands. Our study consisted of three scales of analysis: (1) the entire beach-ridge system; (2) beach-ridge sets; and (3) individual beach ridges. Several beach-ridge systems having formed in different types of coastal settings are compared by their present characteristics. Geomorphic data generated from processing and interpreting satellite images combined with previous studies are used to quantify multi-scale attributes of beach-ridge systems. These attributes include the area, length, width, number of sets, number of ridges per set, set rotation, ridge spacing, and ridge elevation. Our findings demonstrate that significant differences define beach-ridge systems including deltaic strandplains, large non-deltaic strandplains, small non-deltaic strandplains, large spits (cuspate forelands), small spits (flying spits, bay-mouth spits and tombolos) and barrier islands. A more comprehensive characterization of the factors controlling beach-ridge variability will improve our ability to recognize the sedimentary record of ancient of these systems. The proposed basic platform can be used to isolated different beach-ridge types and systems to facilitate future process and morphodynamic studies.