Ruch J. auteur aut IRD Warren J. K. auteur aut IRD Risacher François auteur aut IRD Walter T. R. auteur aut IRD Lanari R. auteur aut IRD text journalArticle eng text/pdf born digital access To investigate the spatiotemporal evolution of salars in the Atacama Desert in Chile (24-26 degrees S), we use a deformation time series retrieved by applying satellite radar interferometry techniques for the period from 2003 to 2008. We find that all 12 salars surveyed are actively deforming, with displacement rates from -1.4 to 1.5 cm/yr in the satellite line-of-sight direction. Displacement rates are mostly confined to the salars themselves, and are generally constant in time and space. To understand the reason for this displacement signal, we further compare these observations with LANDSAT imagery and field observations. Relationships between these observations suggest that the most rapid uplift regions indicate subsurface material accretion. A variety of saline sedimentary processes related to the salar hydrology can explain this accretion, the most likely being capillary halite precipitation within and below surficial salt crusts. We further propose that salars, whose dynamics are dependent on the presence of brine and resurging saline groundwater, may be used as potential indicators of water resource evolution in the central Andes, and in similar water-limited regions elsewhere on earth. specialized InSAR central Andes salar salt flat halite ground deformation 064 126 331 120-127 2012 0012-821X https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010057035 10.1016/j.epsl.2012.03.009 0012-821X [F B010057035] https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010057035 https://www.documentation.ird.fr/intranet/publi/2012/08/010057035.pdf Accès réservé (Intranet de l'IRD) IRD - Base Horizon / Pleins textes 2012-09-03 2017-08-23 fdi:010057035 fre