The Atacama Desert

Spanish II Summer Assignment Kelsey Chisholm

9th Grade

Location• The Atacama Desert is located on the western coast of South America and runs

north and south near the Peru/Chile border. It runs east and west from the Pacific Ocean all the way to the Andes Mountains. The Atacama desert is 30° South of the equator. The Desert is about 994 miles in length and 111 miles in width at it’s widest point. The mean elevation of the desert is 13,000 feet.

People In The Desert Today• In the Atacama Desert today, there are over one million people that live

there. Most people live in the coastal villages, oasis towns, and mining towns. There are many festivals that go on, one being the festival of Virgin del Carmen in La Tirana. Not only are their citizens of the desert, there are astronomer teams that operate in the desert due to the favorable conditions of low moisture content of the air and the absence of clouds.

Atacama Desert Present

• Today, the Atacama Desert is a place full of tourists. People go to visit the cities of San Pedro de Atacama and Calama. In the city of Calama, there are hotels, restaurants, an airport, and shops. In the city San Pedro de Atacama, there is a church known as the church of San Pedro de Atacama.

Climate• The Atacama Desert is known to be one of the driest coastal deserts in the

world. The desert sees an average of less than .01 cm of rain per year. Some places in the desert haven't received rainfall in nearly 400 years! Other places near the desert, including the Andes Mountains, receive their precipitation in the form of snow. The average daily temperatures in the desert range from 0°с-25°c.

Plant Life

• In the Atacama Desert, there are few patches of plants but they are hard to find. Some plants include cacti, perennials, and mesquite. Most plants that can survive through the dryness live around streams or oases where there is water. Other plants have adapted to the environment by developing taproots that run extremely deep into the ground and collect water below.

Animal Life

• Along with plants, animal life is very rare in the Atacama Desert due to the lack of water and nutrients. Most animals in the desert get their source of water from streams or oases. Some animals like flamingo, live near the coastal areas of the desert. Other animals include llamas, vicuñas, alpacas, deer, mice, foxes, and various types of birds.

Ancient People• Archeology shows that the Atacama Desert was once home to various ancient civilizations.

Archeologists show that the desert is about 15 million years old. One of the most obvious indications of this are the 5000 and more geoglyphs carved into the grounds of the desert. These geoglyphs were large, and show many different things; from geometric shapes, to people, to llamas, and to amphibians. They were built around 600-1600AD by advanced South American cultures such as the Tiwanaku and Inca groups, as well as other less advanced people. These geoglyphs provide evidence that people lived here, and although no human remains have been found, paleontologists have found tools such as knives and arrowheads as well as ancient campsites. These campsites are shown to be 9,000 to 13,000 years old.

Why is the Atacama Desert so dry?• Due to a phenomenon called rain shadow, the Atacama Desert is so dry.

Any humid tropical air that would normally be brought into the area from the east by the trade winds is stopped by the Andes mountain range. The humid air cools as it reaches the mountains and the water vapor in the air condenses and falls out as precipitation. Due to the high atmospheric pressure in the mountain range, the dry air decompresses and moves into the desert. This makes the Atacama lack the amount of water. Another contributing factor to the lack of rain in the Atacama is high pressure in the Pacific prevents any rainfall from reaching the desert from the west.

Mining• The Atacama Desert contains the world’s largest sodium nitrate deposits

that provided a major source of income until the 1940’s. There are about 170 abandoned nitrate mining facilities throughout the desert. Not only are there sodium nitrate deposits, there are copper and other mineral deposits in the desert. These minerals also provide a profit like the sodium

nitrate does, just not as much.

Sources Used• http://www.nationalgeographic.com• http://www.buzzle.com• http://www.stanford.edu• http://archaeology.about.com• http://www.musc.edu/cando/geocam/atacama/atacama.html• http://geography.about.com• http://www.worldwildlife.org• http://www.gonomad.com• http://

curriculum.calstatela.edu/courses/builders/lessons/less/biomes/desert/cold-des.html

• http://www.extremescience.com/DriestPlace.htm• http://pictures.ask.com/pictures?q=flamingos&qsrc=87&o=0• http://www.ladatco.com/ATA-INFO.htm• http://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/nceas-web/kids/biomes/desert.htm