Where is the Atacama Desert located?
The Atacama Desert covers a total area of 40,541 sq. mi (105,000 sq. km), stretching 600mi (1000km) from southern Peru into northern Chile. Officially the driest place on Earth, it receives almost no rainfall whatsoever. In fact, it is so dry that some weather stations in the desert have never recorded a single drop of rain.
What is the Atacama skeleton?
A tiny humanoid skeleton was discovered in the Atacama desert in 2003. It was only 15cm long and its ribs and head were elongated and narrow which gave it a very strange appearance leading plenty of people to speculate that it had to be an alien. However, DNA and x-ray analysis showed it to be human and quite recent.
What is the temperature 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.
Why is the Atacama Desert important to Chile and Bolivia?
Throughout the 1800’s, the Atacama Desert was at the epicenter of a land dispute between Bolivia and Chile. Both nations claimed that they were the rightful owners of the northeastern portion of the desert, leading to the War of the Pacific (1879-1884) breaking out.
northern 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. 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.
Do humans live in the Atacama Desert?
Over one million people currently do. In fact, the Atacama Desert has been inhabited for many years. The Atacameño people were the first known to dwell there. Today, people living in this desert grow olives, tomatoes, and cucumbers.
Why is the Atacama Desert so unique?
The Atacama is the oldest desert on Earth and has experienced semiarid conditions for roughly the past 150 million years, according to a paper in the November 2018 issue of Nature. The average temperature in the desert is about 63 degrees F (18 degrees C).
Is Atacama Desert the driest place on Earth?
It is important to note that there does exist an even more arid desert on the planet: the dry valleys of Antarctica. Which is why it’s more precise to say that the Atacama Desert is the driest non-polar place in the world.
Is the Atacama Desert in Peru?
The Atacama Desert stretches from southern Peru to northern Chile and is hailed as one of the top tourist spots in this region. Located west of the Andes Mountain range, it is 1,600km of extraordinary landscape on the Pacific coast. Find out here some of the reasons why the Atacama Desert is so fascinating.
What are 3 facts about the Atacama Desert?
Atacama Desert Facts
- 01The Atacama Desert is a desert plateau in South America covering a 1,600 km strip of land on the Pacific coast, west of the Andes Mountains.
- 02The Atacama Desert is the driest non-polar desert in the world.
- 03It is the only true desert to receive less precipitation than the polar deserts.
Is the Atacama Desert the hottest place on Earth?
The Atacama Desert. Although the 40,441-square-mile (104,741-square-kilometer) Atacama Desert of Chile and Peru is a very hot desert with daytime temperatures hovering around 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius) in the hot season, some places in the world get hotter.