Atacama Desert

By: Undariya Rinchin

Basic Info

• Driest Desert in the world• Plateau in South America• Chile, Peru, Bolivia and Argentina• Covers 105,000km^2 • AKA “Desierto de Atacama”

Made up of

• Stony terrain• Salt lakes• Sand• Felsic Lava

Rainfall

• Average 15mm rain/per year• Some parts never received rain• Goes without raining for 4 years• May be oldest desert

Hyper aridity

• Extreme hyper aridity for 3 million years

• May be oldest desert • Glacier free mountains (600m)• Chile hyper aridity - past 200 million years

Climate

• Dry• Antiplano winter - January to Febuary - Rain, Thunderstorms• Extreme Antarctic Cold front - July 2011 - 80 cm of snow - antiplano winter

mars

• Soil compared to mars• Used for filming mars scenes•  Used by NASA to test Mars missions• Space Odyssey: Voyage to the

Planets

Valle de la luna

•  Valley of the Moon• Looks like the surface of the moon • 13 km to the west of the town of San

Pedro de Atacama

Solar car racing

• 18 solar powered cars displayed • Front of presidential palace• Raced 1300 km through Atacama

Tourism• Tourists stay in San Pedro de

Atacama• Top three tourist locations in Chile• ESO hotel reserved for astronomers

Sports

• Popular with all-terrain sports• Mostly races• Lower Atacama Rally• Lower Chile Ralley• Patagonia- Atacama Rally• Dakar Rally -Held in 2009-2012

Flora• Flora grew despites arid climate• 500 species have gathered• Adapted to extreme environment• Herbs• Flowers- thyme, llareta, saltglass• Llareta- highest growing food species

in the world• Flowers bloom after rainfall

Fauna

• Limits number of animals• Permanently extreme ecosystem• No plants or animals at some parts• Sand colored grass hoppers• Wasps and butterflies found during

humid times• Some lizards and scorpions survive in

Atacama

Human settelment

• Populated at towns near the Pacific coast

• Some valleys populated • Conflicts over water resources

Mining

• Copper mining since 1950• Provided wealth• Rich deposits of copper