Discover the fascinating sights and details of Atacama.

1. Atacama Desert
By: Undariya Rinchin

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

3. Made up of
• Stony terrain
• Salt lakes
• Sand
• Felsic Lava

4. Rainfall
• Average 15mm rain/per year
• Some parts never received rain
• Goes without raining for 4 years
• May be oldest desert

5. Hyper aridity
• Extreme hyper aridity for 3 million years
• May be oldest desert
• Glacier free mountains (600m)
• Chile hyper aridity
- past 200 million years

6. Climate
• Dry
• Antiplano winter
- January to Febuary
- Rain, Thunderstorms
• Extreme Antarctic Cold front
- July 2011
- 80 cm of snow
- antiplano winter

7. mars
• Soil compared to mars
• Used for filming mars scenes
• Used by NASA to test Mars missions
• Space Odyssey: Voyage to the Planets

9. 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

11. Solar car racing
• 18 solar powered cars displayed
• Front of presidential palace
• Raced 1300 km through Atacama

12. Tourism
• Tourists stay in San Pedro de Atacama
• Top three tourist locations in Chile
• ESO hotel reserved for astronomers

13. Sports
• Popular with all-terrain sports
• Mostly races
• Lower Atacama Rally
• Lower Chile Ralley
• Patagonia- Atacama Rally
• Dakar Rally
-Held in 2009-2012

14. 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

16. 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

18. Human settelment
• Populated at towns near the Pacific coast
• Some valleys populated
• Conflicts over water resources

19. Mining
• Copper mining since 1950
• Provided wealth
• Rich deposits of copper