Cenozoic subsurface stratigraphy and structure of the Salar de Atacama Basin, northern Chile

Sequence mapping of industry seismic lines and their correlation to exposed stratigraphic formations enable a description of the evolution of the nonmarine Salar de Atacama Basin. This major tectonic basin, located in the present-day forearc of the northern Chilean Andes, was first defined topographically by late Cretaceous inversion of the Jurassic–early Cretaceous extensional Tarapacá backarc Basin. Inversion led to both the uplift of the Cordillera de Domeyko and subsidence of the Salar de Atacama Basin along its eastern flank. The basin evolved from a continental backarc in the Cretaceous and Paleogene to a forearc tectonic setting during the Neogene. The principal causes of basin-scale tectonic subsidence include late Cretaceous and earliest Paleocene shortening and Oligocene–early Miocene localized extension. The basin was not completely filled by late Cretaceous (Purilactis Group, sequence G) and Paleocene (sequence H) strata, and its empty space persisted through the Cenozoic. Eocene deformation caused long-wavelength rotation of a deeply weathered surface, generating an erosional unconformity across which coarse clastic strata accumulated (sequence J). Oligocene–early Miocene normal faulting, perhaps in a transtensional environment, repositioned the western basin margin and localized hangingwall subsidence, leading to the accumulation of thousands of meters of evaporitic strata (sequence K, Paciencia Group). By the close of the early Miocene, shortening resumed, first uplifting the intrabasinal Cordillera de la Sal and later generating Pliocene blind reverse faults within the topographically lowest part of the basin. Unequal deposition and tilting across the nascent Cordillera de la Sal induced diapirism of the Paciencia Group halite. In combination, inherited accommodation space and new tectonic subsidence, plus local salt-withdrawal subsidence, shaped the distribution of Upper Miocene–Recent ignimbrites, evaporites, and clastics (sequence M and Vilama Formation).