Article
Microbiology
Camila Salazar-Ardiles, Alexander Perez-Arancibia, Leyla Asserella-Rebollo, Benito Gomez-Silva
Summary: Significant knowledge has been gained about the microbiome in the hyperarid Atacama Desert, but information on the Atacama free-living amoebae (FLA) is limited and more efforts are needed. The dominant presence of Acanthamoeba genus has been reported in water and sediment samples from the Loa and Salado rivers in northern Chile, indicating the need for further exploration of Atacama amoebae in other wetlands in the region.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Rodrigo A. Otero
Summary: This contribution presents novel records of ray-finned fishes from the Oxfordian of Cerritos Bayos, northern Chile, including new diversity of Pachycormiformes and the first Upper Jurassic local record of a Lepisosteidae. These new records expand the known actinopterygian diversity from the Upper Jurassic of southeastern Panthalassa.
Article
Geology
Jhonatan Alarcon-Munoz, Laura Codorniu, Edwin Gonzalez, Mario E. Suarez, Manuel Suarez, Omar Vicencio-Campos, Sergio Soto-Acuna, Jonatan Kaluza, David Rubilar-Rogers, Alexander O. Vargas
Summary: We have discovered ctenochasmatid pterosaurs fossils in Cerro Tormento, Cerros Bravos, Northern Chile. The fossils include cervical vertebrae, scapula, humerus, femur, and tibiotarsus impressions. These findings suggest that Ctenochasmatidae was widespread in northern Chile and Cerro Tormento may have been a pterosaur colony.
CRETACEOUS RESEARCH
(2022)
Article
Thermodynamics
Francisco J. Montero, Ramesh Kumar, Ravita Lamba, Rodrigo A. Escobar, Manish Vashishtha, Sushant Upadhyaya, Amador M. Guzman
Summary: The economic feasibility of HPV-TEG systems in desert areas, specifically the Atacama Desert in Chile, was analyzed. The results showed that under current market costs and efficiency, the HPV-TEG system is not economically competitive with photovoltaic systems in the Atacama Desert environment. However, the calculated levelized cost of energy (LCOE) for the HPV-TEG system is close to current LCOEs for PV systems in Chilean energy market, indicating the potential for competitiveness in desert locations.
Article
Environmental Studies
Matias Calderon-Seguel, Manuel Prieto, Oliver Meseguer-Ruiz, Freddy Vinales, Paulina Hidalgo, Elias Esper
Summary: Latin American rural territories have undergone significant transformations since the mid-twentieth century, mainly due to the expansion of large-scale operations exploiting natural resources and low processing levels for world export. Mining and urban growth have promoted certain agricultural and livestock activities under specific economic and political conditions, while also leading to increased urbanization of rural land and growing deagrarianization in other contexts.
Article
Microbiology
Yunha Hwang, Dirk Schulze-Makuch, Felix L. Arens, Johan S. Saenz, Panagiotis S. Adam, Christof Sager, Till L. Bornemann, Weishu Zhao, Ying Zhang, Alessandro Airo, Michael Schloter, Alexander J. Probst
Summary: The study discovered significantly different microbial communities in soils below and beside boulders in the hyperarid core of the Atacama Desert, with highly adapted Thaumarchaeaota possessing ammonia oxidation and carbon fixation potential. Genomes of Ca. Nitrosodeserticola provide insights into a thaumarchaeal lineage found in globally distributed terrestrial habitats characterized by various environmental stresses, expanding the genetic repertoire of Thaumarchaeota and the diversity of microbiome functioning in hyperarid ecosystems.
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Felix L. Arens, Alessandro Airo, Jenny Feige, Christof Sager, Uwe Wiechert, Dirk Schulze-Makuch
Summary: The study in the Atacama Desert in Chile investigated mineralogy, salt abundance, and sulfate stable isotopic composition in four soil profiles. It was found that sulfates are the dominant salts with a transition from gypsum to anhydrite observed in all profiles. This transition is accompanied by an increase of highly soluble salts and a decrease of sulfate delta S-34 and delta O-18 values.
Article
Plant Sciences
Paula C. Ugalde, Virginia McRostie, Eugenia M. Gayo, Magdalena Garcia, Claudio Latorre, Calogero M. Santoro
Summary: The study summarizes all available archaeobotanical evidence from the Atacama Desert and explores how humans adapted to and transformed this hyperarid landscape, with plants playing a key role in their success. This long-term process, termed the Green Revolution, coincided with an exponential increase in the number of social groups inhabiting the Atacama Desert during the Late Holocene.
VEGETATION HISTORY AND ARCHAEOBOTANY
(2021)
Article
Plant Sciences
Joseph A. M. Holtum, Lillian P. Hancock, Erika J. Edwards, Klaus Winter
Summary: In the Atacama desert, plants of the Cistanthe genus exhibit features of crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) during episodic blooms, with CAM expression being facultative in some species and largely constitutive in others. This water-use efficient mechanism of dark carbon uptake increases carbon pools available for seed production or dormancy, especially important in the arid, stochastic rainfall landscape of the desert where the next rain event may be years away. Additionally, evidence from field-collected Cistanthe species suggests a contribution of CAM to their carbon pools.
FUNCTIONAL PLANT BIOLOGY
(2021)
Review
Astronomy & Astrophysics
Armando Azua-Bustos, Carlos Gonzalez-Silva, Alberto G. Fairen
Summary: The Atacama Desert, as the driest and oldest desert on Earth, has been extensively studied as a Mars analog model for nearly 20 years. The research conducted in the Atacama has provided insights into how life adapts to extreme conditions and the potential habitats for life on Mars. Furthermore, the desert is actively used as a testing ground for technologies aimed at exploring Mars.
FRONTIERS IN ASTRONOMY AND SPACE SCIENCES
(2022)
Article
Plant Sciences
Eliana Belmonte, Bernardo Arriaza, Mabel Arismendi, German Sepulveda
Summary: This study investigated the leaf anatomy of three Tillandsia species from the extreme north of Chile. The species exhibited leaf adaptations to arid environments, such as hypostomatic leaves, anomocytic stomata, and peltate trichomes.
Article
Geology
Peter H. Schultz, R. Scott Harris, Sebastian Perroud, Nicolas Blanco, Andrew J. Tomlinson
Summary: The twisted and folded silicate glasses found near Pica in the Atacama Desert suggest intense airbursts close to Earth's surface in the Pleistocene. The evidence includes high temperatures, dynamic modes of emplacement, and meteoritic dust entrained in the glasses. The trapped meteoritic grains resemble those found in comets and primitive chondrites, providing clear evidence for a low-altitude cometary body explosion.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Christian Narvaez-Montoya, Juan Antonio Torres-Martinez, Edwin Pino-Vargas, Fredy Cabrera-Olivera, Frank J. Loge, Jurgen Mahlknecht
Summary: The Caplina/Concordia transboundary coastal aquifer system in the Atacama Desert is a crucial source of water supply for domestic use and irrigation, but has been overexploited for agriculture since before 2000, leading to groundwater depletion and seawater intrusion.
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
(2022)
Article
Geochemistry & Geophysics
Fernanda Gallegos-Poch, Benoit Viguier, Giovanni Menanno, Valentina Mandakovic, Gonzalo Yanez, Sergio Gutierrez, Catalina Lizarde, Jaime Vargas Araya, Camila Lopez-Contreras, Pablo Mendez-Quiros, Antonio Maldonado, Mauricio Uribe
Summary: This study integrated ground penetrating radar (GPR) and electromagnetic induction (EMI) techniques to investigate the Iluga archaeological area in the hyperarid Atacama Desert. The circular features in the area were found to result from extensive deforestation, possibly for charcoal production. The proposed methodology shows promise for archaeological and shallow geological studies in hyperarid and dry environments.
SURVEYS IN GEOPHYSICS
(2023)
Article
Geochemistry & Geophysics
J. Gattacceca, B. A. Devouard, J-A Barrat, P. Rochette, M. L. Balestrieri, G. Bigazzi, G. Menard, F. Moustard, E. Dos Santos, R. Scorzelli, M. Valenzuela, Y. Quesnel, M. Gounelle, V Debaille, P. Beck, L. Bonal, B. Reynard, M. Warner
Summary: The discovery of glassy ejecta in the Central Depression of the Atacama Desert provides key information about hypervelocity impact processes. The splash-form objects, known as atacamaites, are composed of dacitic glass with iron meteorite contamination. These unique tektoids differ from tektites in size, composition, and provenance, increasing the diversity of terrestrial ejected impact glasses.
EARTH AND PLANETARY SCIENCE LETTERS
(2021)
Article
Geology
K. E. Murray, P. W. Reiners, S. N. Thomson
Article
Environmental Sciences
David L. Barbeau, Justin T. Davis, Kendra E. Murray, Victor Valencia, George E. Gehrels, Khandaker M. Zahid, David J. Gombosi
Article
Mineralogy
Jade Star Lackey, Saskia Erdmann, Jessica S. Hark, Robert M. Nowak, Kendra E. Murray, D. Barrie Clarke, John W. Valley
CANADIAN MINERALOGIST
(2011)
Article
Geochemistry & Geophysics
Kendra E. Murray, Devon A. Orme, Peter W. Reiners
Article
Geology
M. N. Ducea, A. C. Seclaman, K. E. Murray, D. Jianu, L. M. Schoenbohm
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Jean Braun, Thibaud Simon-Labric, Kendra E. Murray, Peter W. Reiners
Article
Geochemistry & Geophysics
Thibaud Simon-Labric, Gilles Y. Brocard, Christian Teyssier, Peter A. van der Beek, Peter W. Reiners, David L. Shuster, Kendra E. Murray, Donna L. Whitney
Article
Geochemistry & Geophysics
Kendra E. Murray, Jean Braun, Peter W. Reiners
GEOCHEMISTRY GEOPHYSICS GEOSYSTEMS
(2018)
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Kendra E. Murray, Peter W. Reiners, Stuart N. Thomson, Xavier Robert, Kelin X. Whipple
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE
(2019)
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Leif Karlstrom, Kendra E. Murray, Peter W. Reiners
FRONTIERS IN EARTH SCIENCE
(2019)
Article
Geochemistry & Geophysics
Elias Bloch, Mauricio Ibanez-Mejia, Kendra Murray, Jeffrey Vervoort, Othmar Muntener
EARTH AND PLANETARY SCIENCE LETTERS
(2017)