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The Atacama Desert (Spanish: Desierto de Atacama) is a desert plateau located on the Pacific coast of South America, in the north of Chile.Stretching over a 1,600-kilometre-long (1,000-mile) strip of land west of the Andes Mountains, it covers an area of 105,000 km 2 (41,000 sq mi), [2] which increases to 128,000 km 2 (49,000 sq mi) if the barren lower slopes of the Andes are included.
A desert is a landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions create unique biomes and ecosystems. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to denudation. About one-third of the land surface of the Earth is arid or semi-arid.
The Atacama people, also called Atacameño, are an Indigenous people from the Atacama Desert and altiplano region in the north of Chile and Argentina and southern Bolivia, mainly the Antofagasta Region. According to the Argentinean Census in 2010, 13,936 people identified as first-generation Atacameño in Argentina, [ 2 ] while Chile was home ...
Very Large Telescope. The Very Large Telescope (VLT) is an astronomical facility operated since 1998 by the European Southern Observatory, located on Cerro Paranal in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. It consists of four individual telescopes, each equipped with a primary mirror that measures 8.2 meters in diameter.
Guanaco. The guanaco (/ ɡwɑːˈnɑːkoʊ / ghwuah-NAH-koh; [3] Lama guanicoe) is a camelid native to South America, closely related to the llama. Guanacos are one of two wild South American camelids; the other species is the vicuña, which lives at higher elevations.
The Atacama Desert, one of the driest areas on the planet, lies to the southwest of the Altiplano; to the east lies the humid Amazon rainforest. The Altiplano is noted for hypoxic air caused by very high elevation. The communities that inhabit the Altiplano include Qulla, Uros, Quechua and Aymara.
At the location of the city are two valleys that dissect the Atacama Desert converge: Azapa and Lluta. These valleys provide citrus and olives for export. [3] Arica is an important port for a large inland region of South America. The city serves a free port for Bolivia and manages a substantial part of that country's trade. [3]
Many years have no precipitation at all. The Atacama Desert of Chile is commonly known as the driest non-polar place in the world. [5] [6] 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 ...