Qualla: Atacama Desert

Atacama Desert: Introduction

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Frodosleveland, CC BY-SA 4.0. Some weather stations in the Atacama Desert have never recorded a single drop of rain. Evidence suggests that parts of this 1,600-kilometer strip of Chilean coast received no significant rainfall between 1570 and 1971 -- four centuries of silence from the sky. Evaporite formations in certain sections indicate that arid conditions have persisted here for 200 million years, since the Triassic, making the Atacama not merely a desert but one of the oldest continuously dry landscapes on the planet. NASA chose it to test Mars rover technology because, in terms of soil chemistry and microbial scarcity, the Atacama is the closest thing to another planet that Earth has to offer.

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Image: Frodosleveland | CC BY-SA 4.0

Atacama Desert: Trapped Between Two Walls

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Kakkonen, Public domain. The Atacama's extreme aridity is a product of geography conspiring on every front. To the west, the cold Humboldt Current flows north along the Chilean coast, chilling the air above it and creating a persistent temperature inversion that suppresses rainfall. The South Pacific Hig...

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Image: Kakkonen | Public domain

Atacama Desert: 200 Million Years of Thirst

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Marcos Escalier from Antofagasta, Chile., CC BY-SA 2.0. The Atacama is ancient in its dryness. Aridity here predates the rise of the Andes, though the mountain chain's uplift intensified the condition into hyper-aridity. British scientists have determined that some river beds have been dry for 120,000 years. Mountains exceeding 6,000 ...

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Image: Marcos Escalier from Antofagasta, Chile. | CC BY-SA 2.0

Atacama Desert: The Camanchaca and the Blooming Desert

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Javier Rubilar, CC BY-SA 2.0. Life finds its way in, barely. A marine fog called the camanchaca rolls inland from the Pacific, providing just enough moisture for hypolithic algae sheltering beneath translucent stones, for lichens gripping rock faces, and for the hardy Copiapoa cacti that have adapted to harve...

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Image: Javier Rubilar | CC BY-SA 2.0

Atacama Desert: A Window to Mars -- and to Earth's Beginnings

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit rewbs.soal, CC BY-SA 2.0. The Atacama's resemblance to Mars runs deeper than scenery. In 2003, NASA researchers found that soils near the abandoned Yungay mining town contain so little organic material and are so hostile to microbial life that they mirror Martian surface conditions. Scientists from the Un...

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Image: rewbs.soal | CC BY-SA 2.0

Atacama Desert: Copper, Lithium, and Starlight

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Emilio Erazo-Fischer (Flickr profile), CC BY-SA 2.0. Humans have found reasons to come to the Atacama despite its hostility. Nitrate mining boomed in the 19th century, fueling wars between Chile, Bolivia, and Peru for control of the deposits. Today, copper and lithium extraction drive the regional economy. The same atmospheric clar...

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Image: Emilio Erazo-Fischer (Flickr profile) | CC BY-SA 2.0