What is Atacama Desert famous for?
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. Both regions have been used as experimentation sites on Earth for Mars expedition simulations.
What country claims most of the Atacama Desert?
Atacama Desert, Chile. 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.
What is a famous fact you learned about the Atacama Desert?
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. Some weather stations in the Atacama have never received rain.
What country is the Atacama Desert located in?
Chile
Wedged as it is into a 600-mile strip in the extreme north of the state, its salt plains and boulders push firmly against the borders of Argentina, Bolivia, and Peru. Yet this merely supplies it with a remoteness that adds to its charm. The Atacama Desert is Chile at its most serrated; Chile without a safety net.
How was the Atacama Desert created?
Once they have passed the Andes, the clouds no longer have water and there is no possibility of rainfall to the other side. This complete blockage of precipitation coming from the east, has caused over thousands of years, the formation of the Atacama Desert.
Why is Atacama the driest desert?
Why is the Atacama Desert so dry? The Atacama Desert is located in a zone called the “shadow of rain”. Basically, there is an absence of rains and high evaporation. These natural, complex, and dynamic factors make the Atacama Desert an incredibly dry place.
How hot does it get in the Atacama Desert?
The temperature in the Atacama Desert can reach highs of around 104°F (40°C) during the dayime, whilst falling to temperatures of 41°F (5°C) or below at night. The Atacama Desert is 50 times drier than Death Valley.
Is Atacama Desert cold or hot?
The Atacama is the driest hot desert in the world. There are some weather stations in the Atacama where there has never been any rain! Not all deserts are hot. The Dry Valleys in Antarctica are cold deserts.
Is Atacama Desert Hot or cold?
How cold is the Atacama Desert at night?
Whilst during the summer months the average temperatures are around 27°C (81°F) during the day and 16°C (61°F) at night.
Why Atacama is a desert give reason?
Only one of the rivers from the Andes mountains reaches the ocean through the desert. The rest disappear into the dry soil. The Atacama is a desert not because mountains make a rain shadow, but because the ocean does. The water on the west part of Chile is quite cold, because it came from Antarctica.
What is so unusual about Atacama Desert known for?
The Atacama Desert is a very, very dry place, making it ideal for stargazing. There are few clouds and no pollution. The sunset is otherworldly. The Valley of the Moon is where many people would go to see the breathtaking sunsets that turn the Andes mountain range in gold, red and pink.
Why is the Atacama Desert the driest desert?
The Atacama Desert forms part of the arid Pacific fringe of South America. Dry subsidence created by the South Pacific high-pressure cell makes the desert one of the driest regions in the world.
What is the Atacama desert’s geographic significance?
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 running through Chile and Peru.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.
How did the Atacama Desert get its name?
Its name comes from its unearthly terrain resembling that of the moon. The valley consists of enormous sand dunes, and salt rocks, created entirely by erosion over time. The strong winds and stark temperature change from day to night have given this place its distinctive look.