Comment on "Sedimentary features of tsunami backwash deposits in a shallow marine Miocene setting, Mejillones Peninsula, northern Chile" by G. Cantalamessa and C. Di Celma [Sedimentary Geology 178 (2005) 259-273]

Bahlburg H, Spiske M, Weiss R

Zusammenfassung

We discuss the contribution "Sedimentary features of tsunami backwash deposits in a shallow marine Miocene setting, Mejillones Peninsula, northern Chile" [Sedimentary Geology, 178 (2005) 259-273] by Cantalamessa and Di Celma in which coarse clastic deposits of Miocene age near Antofagasta, northern Chile, were interpreted as tsunami backwash deposits. Here we present sedimentological and structural evidence that the sediments in question are debris flow deposits connected to the formation of a small Neogene graben. They represent physically continuous distal subaqueous equivalents of graben flank debris flow alluvial fan breccias, and not tsunami deposits of any kind. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.