The Atacama Desert on the western margin of the Central Andes is one of the driest and oldest deserts in the world. It is defined by a distinct and ancient surface, known as the Pacific Paleosurface (PPS) or Atacama Paleosurface. The age of this surface is determined as the time at which sediment deposition ceased, and the surface was effectively abandoned. Early studies suggested that this abandonment took place between 14 and 10 Ma, and was related to both the uplift of the Andes and the onset of hyperaridity in the region. Here we provide a regional re-examination of the PPS, compiling existing work on the underlying geology, sedimentology, surface exposure dating, and seismic profiling. We also present new multispectral satellite maps of the PPS and 45 new cosmogenic 3 He and 21 Ne surface exposure ages in order to constrain the formation age, and the preservation and incision history of the paleosurface. We conclude that the PPS is not a single paleosurface, but instead is a mosaic of smaller surfaces that were formed by aggradational and degradational processes over 19 million years (or more) and should be termed collectively as the Pacific Paleosurfaces. The time at which individual paleosurfaces formed is related to regional climate, where the location of each is controlled by regional tectonic activity. Cosmogenic surface exposure ages suggest that the surfaces are a record of regional scale climate events.

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To determine the mechanisms responsible for mountain belt growth, it is important to accurately establish the timing of surface uplift. Here we exploit the altitude control on the production rate of in situ cosmogenic nuclides to test the hypothesis that the Andes was uplifted in the late Miocene. High concentrations of in situ cosmogenic 3He (3Hecos) have previously been measured in alluvial boulders on the western flank of the Central Andes, northern Chile (Evenstar et al. 2009). These are consistent with deposition soon after formation of the surface (13–14 Ma). We have modeled the accumulation of cosmogenic 3He in several different surface uplift scenarios and compared them to the measured concentrations. The measured 3Hecos concentrations are too high to be produced by late Miocene uplift and imply that the western flank of the Andean Cordillera attained a substantial part of its current elevation prior to 14 Myr ago.

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15Large volume ignimbrites are excellent spatial and temporal markers for local 16 deformation and structural relief growth, as they completely inundate and bury the 17 underlying palaeo-topography and leave planar surfaces with relatively uniform, low 18 gradient slopes dipping less than 2°. Using one of these planar surfaces as a reference 19 frame, we employ a line-balanced technique to reconstruct the original morphology of 20 an ignimbrite that has undergone post-emplacement deformation. This method allows 21 us to constrain both the amount of post-eruptive deformation and the topography of 22 the pre-eruptive palaeo-landscape. Our test case is the unwelded surface of the 21.