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13Physical-chemical parameters (temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, nutrients, and chlorophyll concentration) of surface 14 waters were used to evaluate the influence of biological and physical processes over the metal concentrations (Cd, Ni, V, Mo, Mn, 19The surface concentration of metals does not appear to be explained by anthropogenic inputs (at least not during the year of this 20 work), and variability observed in this study appears to be natural. The lack of correlation between physical-chemical parameters two-box conceptual model is proposed to suggest possible influences on metals in surface waters of this coastal ecosystem.

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Early inhabitants along the hyperarid coastal Atacama Desert in northern Chile developed resilience strategies over 12,000 years, allowing these communities to effectively adapt to this extreme environment, including the impact of giant earthquakes and tsunamis. Here, we provide geoarchaeological evidence revealing a major tsunamigenic earthquake that severely affected prehistoric hunter-gatherer-fisher communities ~3800 years ago, causing an exceptional social disruption reflected in contemporary changes in archaeological sites and triggering resilient strategies along these coasts. Together with tsunami modeling results, we suggest that this event resulted from a ~1000-km-long megathrust rupture along the subduction contact of the Nazca and South American plates, highlighting the possibility of M w ~9.5 tsunamigenic earthquakes in northern Chile, one of the major seismic gaps of the planet. This emphasizes the necessity to account for long temporal scales to better understand the variability, social effects, and human responses favoring resilience to socionatural disasters.

BioOne Complete (complete.BioOne.org) is a full-text database of 200 subscribed and open-access titles in the biological, ecological, and environmental sciences published by nonprofit societies, associations, museums, institutions, and presses.

El territorio chileno cuenta con alrededor de 80.000 km de costa considerando el territorio insular, un dato relevante al momento de considerar la ocurrencia de un tsunami. Las autoridades chilenas, conscientes de este extenso territorio marítimo, han desarrollado un sistema de alerta de tsunami como una responsabilidad estatal y han depositado su control a la oficina nacional de emergencia-ministerio del interior (ONEMI) y en el servicio hidrográfico y oceanográfico de la armada de Chile (SHOA). En este artículo hemos realizado experiencias con el objetivo de activar los sistemas de advertencias generando eventos telúricos ficticios y/o eventos telúricos históricos capaces de desatar eventos de tsunami. También se ha propuesto una hipótesis de trabajo que permita, a través de los procedimientos establecidos por ley de la República de Chile, monitorear los tiempos de respuestas de los organismos estatales. Nuestro trabajo de investigación entrega resultados que nos permiten afirmar que existen zonas para eventos hipotéticos que podrían generar tsunamis a los cuales el sistema de alerta no sería eficiente en reaccionar. Para llevar a cabo esta investigación hemos utilizado un software llamado SLAT, basado en ecuaciones simplificadas de propagación de una onda de tsunami que nos permite obtener resultados rápidos y además hemos sometido a prueba el sistema con datos oficiales en los cuales se ha demostrado que el sistema de alerta no fue capaz de reaccionar al evento Atico 8,4 M. ocurrido en Perú.

The sustainability of the lithium industry in Chile is being threatened by the series of environmental and social impacts occurring in the Salar de Atacama. This study is based on a review of technical and environmental reports, including the inspection processes carried out to date at the Salar de Atacama, the main lithium brine deposit worldwide. Demand for clean technologies has increased global lithium production, pressuring the production system to increase the quota of brine extraction to satisfy the greater demand for this resource. As a result of the extraction process in the salt flat, millions of tons of water are removed from the system in an arid region, the biota is affected, and natural conditions change in this fragile and dynamic ecosystem. The impact on the salt flat not only translates into loss of water, but also in the disappearance of vulnerable species that only exist in these places, the loss of the cultural heritage of indigenous peoples, the losses of millions of years of evolution of adaptation processes of species, including the extremophilic organisms. From the economic point of view, although both companies are committed to compensating the damage to the Atacameñas communities, one with 3.5% of the value of sales and the other with a contribution of US$15 million annually, it is not comparable with the deterioration of the Salar and the loss of cultural heritage. In conclusion, it is verified that the lithium mining industry causes strong environmental and social impacts, so we cannot speak of lithium as a synonym for "green economics." Therefore, can the lithium industry be considered of strategic relevance to the development of zero carbon technologies?

On 16 September 2015, the Mw 8.3 Illapel megathrust earthquake broke the subduction contact of the Nazca plate beneath the South American plate, causing unexpectedly high tsunami waves that strongly impacted the coast along the Coquimbo region in central–northern Chile. Here, we report results from a postearthquake and tsunami survey, evidencing a complex coastal geological response driven by the near coast and near trench seismic patches that ruptured during this event. Systematically, high tsunami run-ups, up to 10–11 m a.s.l., were measured on the western coast of the Punta Lengua de Vaca Peninsula in front of the near trench rupture patch, whereas tsunami run-ups up to 5–6 m were measured close to the near coast rupture patch. Detailed measurements conducted in the Coquimbo area revealed tsunami run-ups systematically higher than 6–6.5 m and up to 7.8 m. Field observations of bleached coralline algae supported by ulterior laboratory experiences were compared with geodetic measurements that evidenced complex and variable alongshore uplift-subsidence responses of the coast, suggesting a relative consistency with respect to its modern geomorphological configuration. From the analysis of pit dug in the Tongoy area, which was strongly impacted by this last tsunami, we evaluated distinctive sandy layers with benthic foraminifera tests interbedded between alluvial fine sediments, which we interpreted as paleotsunami events dated before 1108 ± 77 C.E., shortly before 1346 ± 50 C.E., and approximately 1473 ± 37 C.E. In addition to the historical massive tsunamis that occurred in 1730, 1877, and 1922 C.E. in central and northern Chile, we interpreted prehistoric tsunamis revealed here as events triggered by large megathrust earthquake ruptures, evidencing the high exposition of these coasts to near fields as well as to distant tsunamis produced along the Chilean subduction margin but also in the pan-Pacific region.