San Pedro de Atacama
The Atacama Desert of Chile is a virtually rainless plateau made up of salt basins (salares), sand, and lava flows, extending from the Andes mountains to the Pacific Ocean. It is 15 million years old and 100 times more arid than California's Death Valley. The total area of Atacama is 181,300 square kilometers (70,000 miČ).[1] The desert is created from the rain shadow produced by the Andes Mountains to the east of the desert. 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 coastal mountains. The average rainfall in the Chilean region of Antofagasta is just 1 mm per year, and there was a period of time where no rain fell in the entire desert for 400 years. Some weather stations in the Atacama have never received rain. Evidence suggests that the Atacama may not have had any significant rainfall from 1570 to 1971.
