Chilean desert Atacama is famous throughout the world. This severe corner of the Earth is really so ruthless towards people, as it is said about it – it’s hot here, it’s very rare rains, it’s extremely difficult to survive. Nevertheless, Atacama is a real nature reserve. Who said that the desert can not be beautiful in its own way?
Among all the hot deserts of our planet, Atacama is the driest.
About a million people live in the Atacama Desert. Water locals extract from the aquifers soil, however, for this, sometimes you have to dig deep into the ground.
In the dry and hot air of the desert dead bodies mummify, but do not decompose. In the sands of Atacama, archaeologists have discovered mummies older than nine thousand years old.
In Atacama, fierce sandstorms are born.
In some parts of Atacama, there is no rain for decades.
The lowest humidity in the world was registered in Atacama – zero percent. It is very difficult to breathe with such dry air.
Mountains located on the territory of Atacama do not have glaciers and snow caps despite their height, only a little less than seven kilometers.
According to recent research, the dried up riverbeds in the Atacama Desert dried up over 120,000 years ago.
On the Atacama Desert, an average of less than 50 mm of precipitation falls annually.
To collect drinking water, residents of the Atacama region use “fog hunters” – cylinders with nylon walls. Moisture concentrates on nylon threads and drains into the cylinder. One such device can provide more than fifteen liters of water per day.
