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