Climate change and human occupation in the hyperarid core of the Atacama Desert

Abstract

Significant changes in available moisture have occurred in the hyperarid Atacama Desert throughout the late Quaternary. Paleorecords show that areas in the adjacent high Andes and western Altiplano have experienced significant increases in rainfall, likely the result of intensified summer systems associated with the South American Summer Monsoon, tropical Pacific sea-surface temperature gradients and the mean position of the Intertropical Convergence Zone