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The Atacama Desert has been predominantly hyperarid since the middle Miocene. Combined ionic and X-ray diffraction analysis shows that calcium sulphate is prevalent on three similar alluvial fans in salar basins across a transect of different environments in Antofagasta Province, northern Chile. Differences between the fans were largely due to the effect of local factors on salt input, secondary redistribution and deposit preservation. Thus carbonate was notable in the High Andes (fan C) and Pre-Cordillera (fan B), whereas in the Central Valley (fan A) greater quantities of the more soluble salts (chlorides and nitrates) probably reflect the higher level of aridity and an oceanic source (the camanchaca). Calcium sulphate distribution on the alluvial fans and on adjacent hilltops indicates an aeolian origin. Evidence from the Pre-Cordillera (fan B), however, suggests that salt input may have been episodic, related to changes in conditions within the general aridity and possibly to stone pavement and soil development. Calcium sulphate sources range from an input in Andean precipitation and the camanchaca to abundant regional evaporite deposits. It is probable, however, that products of Andean volcanism constitute the dominant primary source of calcium sulphate, and that the salt has subsequently been distributed widely within the endoreic basins of the region by a combination of groundwater, surface flow and the wind. (C) 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.