This is a challenging question to consider, especially considering the proximity to the ocean. It is also one of the oldest deserts, probably from the Triassic period, atleast 3 million years old. Chile's Atacama Desert is the driest non-polar desert on Earth -- and a ready analog for Mars' rugged, arid terrain. The most-arid region of the desert, the northern Atacama, is sandwiched between two mountain ranges, the Andes and the Chilean Coast Range, which limits the amount of moisture the desert absorbs from either the Pacific or Atlantic Oceans. At some weather stations, it has never rained in more than 500 years since Europeans first arrived. Because of the warm, dry climate, the Atacama experiences minimal cloud cover. What makes the San Pedro de Atacama Desert so dry? Some scientists think it may not have rained in thousands of years. The desert is located in 2 South American countries The Atacama Desert is a desert … More. The windward side of a mountain range is … Since it is a part of the Andes Mountain Ranges Volcanic Belt, ground water storage is low, due to extremely high temperatures below the ground. The Arica, Chile has the record for the longest dry streak –173 months without a drop. Atacama desert. But if you’re ever in South America, a trip across the Atacama is well worth it. Ever. The Atacama Desert in Chile (in Spanish: Desierto de Atacama) is a plateau covering 1,000 km in N-S direction from Peru’s southern border into Chile in South America.The desert is narrow and elongated with a width of only 100 km. The Atacama Desert (Spanish: Desierto de Atacama) is a desert plateau in South America covering a 1,600 km (990 mi) strip of land on the Pacific coast, west of the Andes Mountains.The Atacama Desert is the driest nonpolar desert in the world, as well as the only true desert to receive less precipitation than the polar deserts and the largest fog desert in the world. There is a disagreement about the driest place on earth. Driest means little or no precipitation so a desert has to be at the top of the list, such as the Atacama Desert in Chile. The Atacama desert is so dry that mountains of height 6,885 m (22,590 ft) have no glaciers, making them unique in the world. Tres Marias in Atacama Desert. Once you get to the airport, there are shuttles to San Pedro de Atacama. Some areas are actually inundated with frequent coastal fog that forms clouds that roll upwards into the hills but never falls as precipitation. The Atacama Desert is known as the driest place on Earth. The trade or prevailing winds blow from the east (not the west), so when air rises due to higher terrain, the air cools and condenses on the windward side (Amazon Rainforest) and then precipitation falls. Some of the oldest mummies found anywhere on earth have come from the Atacama Desert and have been dated to be 9,000 years old! It's one of the driest places in the world, and in this post, you'll discover the ultimate list of facts about the Atacama Desert! There are countless more reasons why the Atacama Desert should be on your bucket list, and you’ll find out the true wonder of this spectacular desert when you visit. The deserts of the world today are not the deserts of the planet's past. Its limits are not exactly determined, but it lies mainly between the south bend of the Loa River and the mountains separating the Salado-Copiapó drainage basins. At night, deserts cool down, sometimes even below 0°C. Another important reason is that the Andes Range runs along the Atacama Desert, acting as a formidable natural barrier from the moisture of the Amazon; the rain shadow effect. It’s one of few places in the world that experiences what’s called the “rainshadow effect,” which means that the Andes mountain range blocks the rain from getting to the desert. The Atacama is well known for its lack of rainfall, but scientists are only now getting a handle on how long it … Because the Atacama is so bone-dry the bodies of the buried indians have dried perfectly preserved turning them into mummies. The mountains keep out most rain clouds. So Why Is The Desert So Dry? The air that is moving downward is very dry. Why so dry? Why is the Atacama so dry? The milky way over a salt pan in the Atacama Desert. But they are expensive for a low-budget traveler. Driest Desert in the World – Studies conducted by NASA have concluded that this desert located in northern Chile is in fact the driest desert in the world. How come the Atacama is extremely dry when it is so close to the ocean? Chile is witnessing extreme downpours causing floods, including in the Atacama Desert. Studies have shown that the Atacama desert received no appreciable rainfall between 1570 and 1971, and some ancient riverbeds appear to have been dry for 120,000 years. It may be a bit puzzling why the Atacama Desert is so dry since it’s right by the Pacific Ocean. Pinned in on both sides, at the perfect latitude for a desert, and close to a very cold ocean, the end result is hyper-arid conditions – conditions so dry … So, whatever water does evaporate from the cold Pacific Ocean offshore runs into this first topographic wall and is kept out of the Atacama. The Atacama Desert is considered to be the driest area on Earth, except for the regions near the Earth's poles. As a definition, a desert is a hot area of land that gets very little rain — not more than 200mm a year, where temperatures during the daytime can get as high as 55°C. Why is the Atacama desert so dry? Especially if you’re the kind of traveller who likes going out in … First, this desert is in between two mountain ranges, the Andes and the Chilean Coast Range. The region is prone to long periods of drought, and climate scientists suspect that the desert received virtually no precipitation between 1570 and 1971 — a period of over 400 years. Most deserts … Hereof, why is the Atacama desert so important? They are so dry and inhospitable that the same tools showing no life on Mars in the 1970’s also showed no life in both of these locations on Earth. Atacama Desert, Spanish Desierto de Atacama, cool, arid region in northern Chile, 600 to 700 miles (1,000 to 1,100 km) long from north to south. And in Calama we took a bus (1 1/2 hours) to San Pedro de Atacama. The driest desert on Earth. The reason these rock carvings are so well preserved and why the Atacama Desert in general is such a hotbed for archeology is because of the dry climate, which has preserved items which would have been lost in more humid climates. Then there are the parts of the Atacama that, as far as weather stations can tell, have never received any rainfall. Distance from San Pedro de Atacama… But the El Nino weather phenomenon did spare the region in 2015 and it brought 0.96 inches of rain in one day in some parts. You'd think that but the Atacama is actually west of the Andes. The stars, sand dunes, rock formations, lagoons and more create a desert like no other, transporting you to another planet. Atacama desert Peru is considered to be the driest place on Earth and is classified as a hot desert. Some weather stations in the Atacama have never received rain. The air is so dry here, is that I to buy a truckload of moisturizer to stop my skin from cracking – and I normally have oily skin! A big air current in the area, called the Walker circulation, carries air downward. 1. Hot and dry deserts have a mean annual temperature of 20 to 25 degrees Celsius, and the extreme temperatures can range from 43 to 49.5 degrees Celsius during the day and minus 18 degrees Celsius at night. Last week, it rained so much in Atacama Desert — the driest place on the planet — that a waterfall that remained dry for 10 years has come to life. The first consideration is that there are two mountain ranges that create a rain shadow that literally keeps rain clouds from entering this area. The Atacama Desert is covered with pink flowers that were able to grow because of the crazy amount on rainfall there. Why Are Deserts Dry? It would be classified as a cool, dry desert climate. Because of the heat and the lack of rainfall, there are no large canopy trees to shade animals or plants. I wanted to come here because it is such an extreme environment. So we asked some people if they would like to share a taxi with us to Calama city. Why is it so dry? Fossilized hippopotamus and elephant bones tell us that the Sahara, for instance, was a much moister and more hospitable environment around 8,000 years ago than it is now. 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