What are 3 interesting facts about the Atacama Desert?

Interesting Facts

• 01The Atacama Desert is a desert plateau in South America covering a 1,600 km strip of land on the Pacific coast, west of the Andes Mountains.
• 02The Atacama Desert is the driest non-polar desert in the world.
• 03It is the only true desert to receive less precipitation than the polar deserts.

What makes the Atacama Desert so incredible?

Basically, there is an absence of rains and high evaporation. These natural, complex, and dynamic factors make the Atacama Desert an incredibly dry place.

Does anyone live in the Atacama Desert?

In fact, the Atacama Desert has been inhabited for many years. The Atacameño people were the first known to dwell there. Today, people living in this desert grow olives, tomatoes, and cucumbers. Many also herd alpacas.

Why is Atacama the driest desert in the world?

The Valley of the Moon, with Licancábur volcano in the background, Atacama Desert, Chile. Dry subsidence created by the South Pacific high-pressure cell makes the desert one of the driest regions in the world.

What are two 2 facts about the Atacama Desert?

10 Facts About The Atacama Desert

• Driest Desert in the World – Studies conducted by NASA have concluded that this desert located in northern Chile is in fact the driest desert in the world.
• Rainless (or just about) – Average rainfall in this region is about 1 mm per year.

When was the Atacama Desert discovered?

Figure 7 About a century ago while conducting research for his book Desert Trails of Atacama (1924), Isaiah Bowman discovered this 1835 map of Chile’s desert north by the Copiapó Mining Company, whose offices Charles Darwin visited when he traveled through the region.

What is the Atacama Desert climate?

Old, hot and dry In other deserts around the world, like the Sahara, the mercury can soar above 130 degrees Fahrenheit (50 degrees Celsius). But temperatures in the Atacama are comparatively mild throughout the year. The average temperature in the desert is about 63 degrees F (18 degrees C).

What is the culture in the Atacama Desert?

Atacama, also called Atacameño, orCunza, extinct South American Indian culture of the Andean desert oases of northern Chile and northwestern Argentina. The last surviving groups of the Atacama have been assimilated by Spanish and Aymara culture.

Is Atacama a cold or hot desert?

The Atacama is the driest hot desert in the world. There are some weather stations in the Atacama where there has never been any rain! Not all deserts are hot. The Dry Valleys in Antarctica are cold deserts.

Is Atacama Desert Hot?

Is Atacama a cold desert?

Even though the Atacama is the driest place in the world that does not mean it is the hottest. The Atacama Desert is actually a really cold place with temperatures ranging from 0 to 30 degrees. Three countries fought the War of the Pacific in the 1880s for control of the desert.

What is the history of the Atacama Desert?

History. About 10,000 years ago, the region which we now call the Atacama was more humid and less hostile to human life than it is now. It attracted nomadic groups who came to hunt and collect food. Fast forward 4,000 years, the land dried up, gradually transforming into the landscape as we know it today.