Many deserts are found in bands along 30 degrees latitude north and 30 degrees latitude south.

The Atacama Desert is located in Chile. It is a cool coastal desert and the driest in the world! Chile

About 1,000 km long strip of land Pacific Ocean About the same size as Iowa State.

It is considered the oldest desert on Earth. This desert has had extreme aridity in some parts for more than 200 million years.

How was it formed?  It is 150,000,000 years old according to fossils found around algef rocks.  A mineral called algef, has given clues about its age. This mineral is usually found underwater, so more than 150,000,000 years ago, the Atacama desert was covered by seawater..  Some of the hills and mountains near the west coast are volcanoes that were active 195,000,000 million years ago…  Then Pacific plate goes under the Continental Plate in South America causing the land to raise. The rock melts and those volcanoes were formed. As the plate continued pushing under the continental plate, the other group of volcanoes around the Tatio formed.  50,000,000 million years ago, this same process formed the Andes Mountain Chain.  This process made The Atacama Desert rich in minerals.

The rainfall average is 15ml per year but some areas receive about 3ml per year. It would take the desert one century to fill a cup!

Why is it so dry? Tropic of Capricorn  It is near the Tropic of Capricorn, so the air is very dry. The humid air from the Equator is almost dry by the time it reaches the Tropic of Capricorn. Humboldt Current  The water on the coast is 12° C and on land 25° C. The Humboldt Current comes all the way up from Antarctica. The water cools the air and creates a foggy environment that reaches the coast. The warm dry air from the Andes goes down to the coast and place themselves on top of the clouds with the cold air and doesn’t let them pass.

Why is it the driest desert being a coastal desert?

It is so arid that only the highest peaks get some snow: Ojos del Salado, Monte Pissis, and Llullaillaco. Tallest Mountain in Southern Hemisphere Volcano

Volcanoes Licancabur Volcano

It has salt flats. Laguna Cejar It has more salinity than the Death Sea.

Valley of the Moon

Death Valley

Tatio Geysers Biggest geyser area in South America

Paranal Observatory

Cerro Chajnantor in the Atacama Desert region in Chile

Atacama’ s Night Sky

Chuquitamata: Biggest Open Copper Mine in the World  The climate (no weathering) and its volcanic origin concentrated the copper in this area.

Welcome to the Atacama Desert! 