Coastal Cliff of northern Chile

View of the arid mountains near Iquique ending abruptly in the Pacific Ocean.

The coastal cliff at La Portada near Antofagasta.

The Coastal Cliff of northern Chile (Spanish: Acantilado Costero) stretches over a length of more than 1000 km along the Atacama Desert. It makes up a large part of the western boundary to the Chilean Coast Range in the regions of Arica y Parinacota, Tarapacá, Antofagasta, and Atacama.^[1] According to Roland Paskoff, the modern cliff originated from a scarp retreat of a fault scarp, thus at present the cliff does not follow any fault.^[2]

In some locations, a series of coastal benches can be found below the cliff.^[3] Despite alternating uplift and subsidence of the continent at a decadal timescale the cliff and the whole western edge of the South American Plate has faced a long-term uplift during the last 2.5 million years.^[3]

References

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^ Paskoff, R. (1979). Sobre la Evolución Geomorfológica del gran acantilado costero del Norte Grande de Chile. Norte Grande (in Spanish). Universidad Católica de Chile, Instituto de Geografía, 6, 7-22.
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