Tectonic implications of late Cenozoic sedimentation from the Coastal Cordillera of northern Chile (22-24°S)

Late Cenozoic sediments from northern Chile (22-24°S) are exposed on the coastal plain between the Coastal Cordillera to the east and tilted fault blocks of the Mejillones Peninsula to the west. During the mid-Miocene to Pliocene a shallow marine basin developed unconformably over basement. Alluvial, aeolian and beach sediments were restricted to the basin margins. Areas of restricted clastic input were characterized by carbonate deposition. Marine planation surfaces or terraces and associated palaeo-sea cliffs cut into Miocene-Pliocene sediments and basement rocks, developed along the coastline of northern Chile in the "late Pliocene to late Pleistocene. A similar age for a number of late Pleistocene terraces now at different elevations, suggests that they were cut during interglacial highstands. -from Authors