"the lomas owe their existence to the moist dense fog and mist which rolls in from the Pacific. The fog is called garúa in Peru and Camanchaca in Chile. According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, the coastal desert of Peru and the Atacama desert of Chile feature a rare desert climate, that is abbreviated ""Bwn"" on climate maps with the n denoting frequent fog. Temperatures are mild year round and precipitation is nearly non-existent, averaging to per year in most locations. Many years have no precipitation at all. The Atacama Desert of Chile is commonly known as the driest"
"the high desert floor creating a canyon that is over a mile (6,000 feet or 1,800 meters) deep in places, exposing strata that are over two billion years old. One of the driest places on Earth is the Atacama Desert. It is virtually devoid of life because it is blocked from receiving precipitation by the Andes mountains to the east and the Chilean Coast Range to the west. The cold Humboldt Current and the anticyclone of the Pacific are essential to keep the dry climate of the Atacama. The average precipitation in the Chilean region of Antofagasta is just per"
"southern Chile, and the world's driest desert, the Atacama. This dry area is cooled by the Humboldt Current and upwelling, giving rise to the largest fisheries in the world. There are two small transition zones between the perhumid and perarid regions: around Guayaquil with summer rain, and the Mediterranean climate region of central Chile. Both these regions have highly erratic rainfall strongly influenced by El Niño events, which bring major floods. In contrast, the high plateaux of the Andes are drier than normal during El Niño episodes. The very fertile soils from the erosion of the Andes formed the basis"
"non-polar place in the world. Arica, Chile, in the middle portion of the coastal desert, went a record 173 months without measurable precipitation in the early 20th century. Occasional rainfall is caused by El Niño. For example, in March 2015, the desert in Chile received about in one day which caused flooding. In a phenomenen called the flowering desert, after the rare rains the desert briefly blooms with flowers. Normally, with the nearly non-existent precipitation, the coastal desert is almost devoid of vegetation except in lomas and along rivers which originate in the Andes and cross the desert to the"
"to the Pacific High and outside the range of the ITCZ, cyclones and hurricanes do not occur around Easter island. The Atacama Desert is the driest place on Earth, and is virtually sterile because it is blocked from moisture on both sides by the Andes mountains and by the Chilean Coast Range. The cold Humboldt Current and the Pacific Anticyclone are essential to keep the dry climate of Atacama Desert. The average rainfall in the Chilean region of Antofagasta is just 1 mm per year. Some weather stations in the Atacama have never received rain. Evidence suggests that the Atacama"
"refer to as the Norte Grande (Big North) lies within the Atacama Desert, the driest region on Earth. The Norte Grande and the Norte Chico immediately to the south belong to the Chilean ""pampa"", a vast plain located between the Pacific Ocean and the western foothills of the Andes mountains. The Norte Grande, which administratively consisted (before 1974) of the two Provinces of Tarapacá and Antofagasta, had been seized by Chile from Bolivia and Peru in the War of the Pacific (1879–1884), giving Chile an area rich in minerals, principally copper and saltpeter (sodium nitrate). Tensions provoked by the control"
"the oldest desert on earth, and has experienced extreme hyperaridity for at least 3 million years, making it the oldest continuously arid region on earth. The long history of aridity raises the possibility that supergene mineralisation, under the appropriate conditions, can form in arid environments, instead of requiring humid conditions. Geological research suggests that in some sections of the Atacama Desert, such as in today's Chile, hyperaridity has persisted for the last 200 million years (since the Triassic), competing only with Africa's Namib Desert for such a title. The Atacama is so arid that many mountains higher than are completely"
"Dry Andes The Dry Andes () is a climatic and glaciological subregion of the Andes. Together with the Wet Andes it is one of the two subregions of the Argentine and Chilean Andes. The Dry Andes runs from the Atacama Desert in northern Chile and Argentina south to a latitude of 35°S in Chile. In Argentina the Dry Andes reaches 40°S due to the leeward effect of the Andes. According to Luis Lliboutry the Dry Andes can be defined by the distribution of penitentes. The southernmost well developed penitentes are found on Lanín Volcano. Though precipitation increases with the height,"
"desert, making it the world's driest inhabited continent. In South America, the Andes mountain range blocks Pacific moisture that arrives in that continent, resulting in a desertlike climate just downwind across western Argentina. The drier areas of the United States are regions where the Sonoran Desert overspreads the Desert Southwest, the Great Basin and central Wyoming. Since rain only falls as liquid, in frozen temperatures, rain cannot fall. As a result, very cold climates see very little rainfall and are often known as polar deserts. A common biome in this area is the tundra which has a short summer thaw"
"Camanchaca Camanchacas are cloud banks that form on the Chilean coast, by the Earth's driest desert, the Atacama Desert, and move inland. (In Peru, camanchaca is called garúa) On the side of the mountains where these cloud banks form, the camanchaca is a dense fog that does not produce rain. The moisture that makes up the cloud measure between 1 and 40 microns across, too fine to form rain droplets. In 1985, scientists devised a fog collection system of polyolefin netting to capture the water droplets in the fog to produce running water for villages in these otherwise desert areas."
"Sechura Desert The Sechura Desert is located south of the Piura Region of Peru along the Pacific Ocean coast and inland to the foothills of the Andes Mountains. Its extreme aridity is caused by the upwelling of cold coastal waters and subtropical atmospheric subsidence, but it is also subject to occasional flooding during El Niño years. In 1728, the town of Sechura was destroyed by a tsunami and was later rebuilt in its present location. In 1998, runoff from flooding rivers caused the formation of a temporary lake some long filling the Bayóvar Depression. Short rivers flowing across the desert"
"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. The most arid region of the Atacama desert is situated between two mountain chains (the Andes and the Chilean Coast Range) of sufficient height to prevent moisture advection from either the Pacific or the Atlantic Oceans, a two-sided rain shadow. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature, the Atacama Desert ecoregion occupies a continuous strip for nearly 1,600 km along the narrow coast of the northern"
"fewer species compared to the flora of other South American countries. The northernmost coastal and central region is largely barren of vegetation, approaching the most absolute desert in the world. On the slopes of the Andes, in addition to the scattered tola desert brush, grasses are found. The central valley is characterized by several species of cacti, the hardy espinos, the Chilean pine, the southern beeches and the copihue, a red bell-shaped flower that is Chile's national flower. In southern Chile, south of the Biobío River, heavy precipitation has produced dense forests of laurels, magnolias, and various species of conifers"
"Drought in Chile Through its history, Chile was regularly affected by droughts. In the more arid parts of Chile droughts are produced when there are low amount of snow accumulation in the Andes. Chilean coastal basins without snow accumulation are particularly vulnerable to drought. The territory of Central Chile has been affected by long-term droughts in 1280–1450, 1570–1650 and 1770–1820. The 1770–1782 period was one of general drought in Central Chile with a total of three non-consecutive years of extreme drought. In 1772 vineyards and cropfields along Mapocho River in Santiago could not be irrigated. This drought led the authorities"
"terms of ecoregions it is in the Central Andean dry puna. Llano de Chajnantor is at the same latitude as deserts in southern Africa and central Australia. Llano de Chajnantor Observatory Llano de Chajnantor Observatory is the name for a group of astronomical observatories located at an altitude of over in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. The site is in the Antofagasta Region approximately east of the town of San Pedro de Atacama. The exceptionally arid climate of the area is inhospitable to humans, but creates an excellent location for millimeter, submillimeter, and mid-infrared astronomy. This is because water"
"center of the world as astronomers and scientists flocked to Chile to observe the universe through the thin and clear skies. We next see Guzmán walking in the Atacama Desert, a place with absolutely no moisture, so much so that it resembles the surface of Mars. This desert, and its abundance of history, becomes the focus of the documentary. Because of how dry it is, the desert hosts the untouched remains of fish, mollusks, Indian carvings, and even mummified humans. Astronomer Gaspar Galaz is introduced and comments on how astronomy is a way to look into the past to understand"
"climatically dominated by the Andes to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Chile's vineyards are found along an 800-mile stretch of land from Atacama Region to the Bio-Bio Region in the south. The climate is varied with the northern regions being very hot and dry compared to the cooler, wetter regions in the south. In the Valle Central around Santiago, the climate is dry with an average of 15 inches (38 centimeters) of rain and little risk of springtime frost. The proximity to the Dry Andes help create a wide diurnal temperature variation between day and nighttime"
"also a great variety of caverns. When the sun sinks, it is painting pie tones the edges of hills and defiles, while the wind blows among the rocks and the sky passes from pink color to purple and finally black. Valle de la Luna is a part of the Reserva Nacional los Flamencos and was declared a Nature Sanctuary in 1982 for its natural environment and strange lunar landscape, from which its name is derived. The Atacama desert is also considered one of the driest places on earth, as some areas have not received a single drop of rain in"
"Monte Desert The Monte Desert is a South American ecoregion, lying entirely within Argentina and covering approximately the submontane areas of Catamarca, La Rioja, San Juan, San Luis and Mendoza Provinces, plus the western half of La Pampa Province and the extreme north of Río Negro Province. The desert lies southeast of the Atacama Desert in Chile, north of the larger Patagonian Desert, east of the Andes and west of the Sierra de Córdoba. The delineations between the Monte Desert, the Atacama Desert, and the Patagonian Desert are not exact and the desert seems to be more-or-less continuous with the"
"below previous record lows: in Valdivia only fell and in Concepción just , whereas the lowest before 1996 had been in 1924. Bibliography Drought in Chile Through its history, Chile was regularly affected by droughts. In the more arid parts of Chile droughts are produced when there are low amount of snow accumulation in the Andes. Chilean coastal basins without snow accumulation are particularly vulnerable to drought. The territory of Central Chile has been affected by long-term droughts in 1280–1450, 1570–1650 and 1770–1820. The 1770–1782 period was one of general drought in Central Chile with a total of three non-consecutive"
"desert, the region rarely suffers from heat. In addition to that, the winter presents mostly cool temperatures. Strong and constant wind and high humidity is what brings low temperatures in the winter. The Atacama is the driest place on Earth. One of the most peculiar plants of the region is the ""Araucaria"" tree, which can be found in Brazil, Chile and Argentina. The only native group of conifers found in the southern hemisphere had its origin in the Southern Cone. ""Araucaria angustifolia"", once widespread in Southern Brazil, is now a critically endangered species, protected by law. The prairies region of"
"within the agricultural region in the north. Sechura Desert The Sechura Desert is located south of the Piura Region of Peru along the Pacific Ocean coast and inland to the foothills of the Andes Mountains. Its extreme aridity is caused by the upwelling of cold coastal waters and subtropical atmospheric subsidence, but it is also subject to occasional flooding during El Niño years. In 1728, the town of Sechura was destroyed by a tsunami and was later rebuilt in its present location. In 1998, runoff from flooding rivers caused the formation of a temporary lake some long filling the Bayóvar"
"Patagonian Desert The Patagonian Desert, also known as the Patagonia Desert, Patagonian Steppe, or Magellanic Steppe, is the largest desert in Argentina and is the 8th largest desert in the world by area, occupying 673,000 square kilometers (260,000 mi). It is located primarily in Argentina with small parts in Chile and is bounded by the Andes, to its west, and the Atlantic Ocean to its east, in the region of Patagonia, southern Argentina. To the north the desert grades into the Cuyo Region and the Pampas. The central parts of the steppe are dominated by shrubby and herbaceous plant species"
"wool and timber are also included. Animal products have an export value of $5.89 billion. Water heavy industries are causing groundwater, lake, and river depletion in Chile. Illegal water extractions are now becoming common in Chile. Exploiting the country's water has been detrimental to the citizens and animals that rely on these sources of water. Located on the west coast of South America, Chile has a total area of 756,102 sq km. There are four climates that separate Chile. One of these climates is the Dry climate. This is located the North above Santiago called Atacama Desert with the temperature"
"Norte Grande The Norte Grande (""Big North"", ""Far North"", ""Great North"") is one of the five natural regions into which CORFO divided continental Chile in 1950. It borders Peru to the north, the Pacific Ocean to the west, the Altiplano, Bolivia and Argentina to the east, and the Copiapó River to the south, beyond which lies the Norte Chico natural region. The Norte Grande, which extends from the Peruvian border to about 27° south latitude, a line roughly paralleled by the Copiapó river, is extremely arid. It contains the Atacama Desert, one of the driest areas in the world; in"
"and down the Peruvian and Chilean coasts. Except for the lomas and river valleys draining the higher and more humid Andes the coastal desert is almost completely barren of vegetation. The garúa extends only a few kilometers inland, dissipating over land especially where it coalesces against mountain slopes at elevations of to , the altitudes at which the vegetated lomas are found. In a water-scarce desert land, water is being captured from the moisture-laden garúa. In Chile, in 1985, scientists devised a fog collection system of polyolefin netting to capture the water droplets in the fog to produce running water"
"this water pick up little moisture and the coastal regions have low temperatures and very low rainfall, the main precipitation being in the form of fog and dew. The range of temperatures on a daily and annual scale is relatively low, being and respectively in the Atacama Desert. Deserts of this type are often long and narrow and bounded to the east by mountain ranges. They occur in Namibia, Chile, southern California and Baja California. Other coastal deserts influenced by cold currents are found in Western Australia, the Arabian Peninsula and Horn of Africa, and the western fringes of the"
"central Chile. The climate is characterized by hot, dry summers and cool, wet winters. A steppe is a dry grassland. Subarctic climates are cold with continuous permafrost and little precipitation. The tropical zones have the highest number of storm events followed by the temperate climate. In a recent study, researchers from 63 countries combined 30-minutes rainfall data in order to estimate the global rainfall erosivity (an index combining the amount, frequency and intensity of rainfall). The arid and cold climate zones have very low number of erosive events. Its northern half of the continent is primarily desert, containing the vast"
"are the other Mediterranean climate regions. The Matorral occupies central Chile between 32° and 37° south latitude. The Pacific Ocean lies to the west, and the Chilean Coastal Range lies parallel to the coast. The Chilean Central Valley lies between the Coastal range and the Andes Mountains, which bound the Matorral ecoregion on the east. To the north is the extremely dry Atacama desert, which separates the Matorral from the tropical forests of northern South America. A semi-desert region known as ""El Norte Chico"", (the ""little north"") lies between 28° and 32° south latitude, and is the transition zone between"
"desert climates are typically found at higher altitudes than hot desert climates and are usually drier than hot desert climates. Cold desert climates are typically located in temperate zones, usually in the rain shadow of high mountains, which restrict precipitation from the westerly winds. An example of this is the Patagonian Desert in Argentina bounded by the Andes to its west. In the case of Central Asia, mountains restrict precipitation from the monsoon. The Kyzyl Kum, Taklamakan and Katpana Desert deserts of Central Asia and the drier portions of the Great Basin Desert of the western United States are other"
"Arid Diagonal The Arid Diagonal () is a contiguous zone of arid and semi-arid climate that traverses South America from coastal Peru in the Northwest to Argentine Patagonia in Southeast including large swathes of Bolivia and Chile. The Arid Diagonal encompasses a number of deserts, for example: Sechura, Atacama, Monte and the Patagonian Desert. The Arid Diagonal acts to isolate the temperate and subtropical forests of Chile and southern Argentina from other forests of South America. Together with the Quaternary glaciations in the Southern Andes, the diagonal has controlled the distribution of vegetation throughout Chile and Argentina. The northern portion"
"The reserve is located onshore from the changeover between the Humboldt and El Niño ocean currents, which place it at the transition zone between some of the wettest forests in the world (the Chocó rainforests in Colombia) and the driest desert in the world (the Atacama in Peru and Chile). Starting in late December, a change in atmospheric pressure shifts ocean currents so that warm waters from the El Niño current come closer to shore and displace the cold waters of the Humboldt current. The result is warmer air temperatures and heavy rainfall that used to last through August, but"
"a small cove on the coast of the Pacific in the Atacama desert, the driest non-polar desert in the world. Vegetation is nearly absent in most of the Atacama. At Paposo, the Andes foothills rise steeply inland from the sea reaching an elevation of less than from the coast. Paposo and the Atacama have the desert climate in the Köppen Classification, characterized by mild temperatures, unusual in desert climates, and frequent fog rolling in from the nearby ocean, especially in the southern hemisphere winter. Average temperatures in Paposo range from in July to in January, the warmest month. Annual precipitation"