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The Atacama Desert
Say the word 'desert' and most people think of the Sahara or Arabian Desert. The Atacama on the Pacific Coast of Chile is one of the world's truest deserts. The Atacama Desert covers 600 miles along the coast of Chile. Most of the land rarely gets more than a few inches of rain a year, some areas haven't seen rain since 1570 right after the conquistadors first arrived. (I'm not sure if these two events are connected but we'll keep you posted).
The Andes Mountains were created by the collision of tectonic plates over millions of years. This tectonic action is also responsible for creating the hot springs and geysers that push fresh water to the surface due to violent geologic activity deep in the earth's interior. This water is full of hard minerals and always boiling (about 200°F), which does not make them very useful for drinking, but does bring money to Chile in the form of tourists and geothermal energy.
The Atacama has some pretty cool stories to tell. For starters, it is not a completely barren wasteland. Hardy plants and animals do thrive here. Some plants have adapted by getting their water from the fogs called Camanchaca that roll in off the oceans. Humans are learning to harness the power of this fog as a source of fresh water.
So why is the Atacama so dry compared to the rest of the coast? The Andes Mountains is one of the culprits for the creation of this vast stretch of brown along the coast. The other is the cold Pacific Ocean current that sweeps past South America on its way to the equator. Let's do a quick crash course on what makes rain fall.
Keep in mind the following basic rules of geography:
1. The earth rotates (duh!)
2. This spinning creates currents of air and water that move warm and cold water and air like highways from the poles to the equator and back again.
3. Warm air holds more moisture than cold...the molecules are further apart. As air cools the molecules come together, get heavier, and drop as rain.
4. As water cools it drops its moisture.
Okay, back to the Atacama. As previously mentioned on the page about the Andes, the mountains are too high for warm moist air from the Atlantic Ocean to pass over. This creates a rain shadow where the eastern side of the mountains are lush and green. The western side is dull by comparison and in some places, like the Atacama, has no plant life at all.
The Pacific side of South America does receive rainfall, in places as much as 80 inches a year. This is because the Peru Current (also known as the Humboldt Current) brings cold water from Antarctica, which when it meets the warm tropical air, condenses and turns to rain. This rainfall is why most people who live in Chile, Peru, and Ecuador live in cities along the coast. But along near the coast of the Atacama a unique event happens called an inversion, that warms the Peru Current preventing its moisture from condensing.
Thus, you have one of the world's driest places. Some places are so devoid of plant life you might mistake it for a lunar landscape, such as the aptly named Valle de la Luna (Valley of the Moon).
Humans have lived (and still do) in the Atacama Desert for thousands of years, near oases and along the coast. Evidence of this has been found in the famous Andes Mummies (turn the page to learn more).
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