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.
Which 2 deserts are located in Chile and Argentina?
The South American countries of Chile and Argentina have a total of three deserts between them: the Atacama Desert in Chile , the Monte Desert in...
What deserts are in Chile?
The Atacama Desert is a narrow strip of desert along the northwest coast of Chile. It extends nearly 1600 km and reaches a maximum width of 180 km. In many areas rainfall has never been recorded. Consequently, an extremely arid, almost barren, landscape predominates.
What is the desert you would primarily found in Chile?
Chile’s Atacama Desert , the driest nonpolar desert on Earth, stretches across a roughly 600-mile (1,000 kilometers) tract of land wedged between the coastal Cordillera de la Costa mountain range and the Andes Mountains.
Why is Atacama a desert?
The Atacama Desert is located in a zone called the “shadow of rain”. This is determined by its geographical location: between the Andes mountain range , which blocks the humid air of the Amazons, and the Coastal mountain range, which interjects between the air currents that come from the Pacific Ocean.
Does South America have any deserts?
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.
Why does Chile have a desert?
Most of the desert is composed of stony terrain, salt lakes (salares), sand, and felsic lava that flows towards the Andes. The desert owes its extreme aridity to a constant temperature inversion due to the cool north-flowing Humboldt ocean current and to the presence of the strong Pacific anticyclone .
Which is the smallest desert in the world?
- At only 600m wide, Canada’s Carcross Desert is said to be the world’s smallest desert (Credit: Mike MacEacheran)
- The Carcross Desert is a rare habitat for plants and insect species that may be new to science (Credit: Mike MacEacheran)
Which is the coldest desert in the world?
The largest desert on Earth is Antarctica , which covers 14.2 million square kilometers (5.5 million square miles). It is also the coldest desert on Earth, even colder than the planet’s other polar desert, the Arctic.
Which is the largest desert in the world?
| Desert (Type) Surface area in million square miles | Antarctic (polar) 5.5 | Arctic (polar) 5.4 |
|---|
Is Atacama Desert worth visiting?
Atacama Desert is definitely worth visiting , considering the fact you can enjoy both stunning landscapes in Valley de la Luna and see rare animal species like vicuñas, and flamingos. Spending one week in San Pedro de Atacama during January is the best plan to visit Atacama Desert.
Is Atacama plateau a tourist location?
After Patagonia and Easter Island, the Atacama Desert is the third most frequented destination for travel to Chile . It is also not too far from many of the other South America tourism hotspots. 39. Guided tours are the most popular way to reach the sites in the Atacama Desert.
Which place is the driest place on Earth?
The Atacama Desert in Chile , known as the driest place on Earth, is awash with color after a year’s worth of extreme rainfall. In an average year, this desert is a very dry place.
Which desert is the most toxic desert in the world?
According to scientists the most dangerous place in the world is located inside Africa’s Sahara desert .
Which is the hottest desert in the world?
Seven years of satellite temperature data show that the Lut Desert in Iran is the hottest spot on Earth. The Lut Desert was hottest during 5 of the 7 years, and had the highest temperature overall: 70.7°C (159.3°F) in 2005.
Which country has no rain?
The world’s lowest average yearly precipitation in 0.03′′ (0.08 cm) during a 59-year period at Arica Chile . Lane notes that no rainfall has ever been recorded at Calama in the Atacama Desert, Chile.
