Atacama Desert

Atacama Desert
CHILE
The Atacama Desert is a virtually rainless plateau in Chile, covering a 600 mile strip of land on the Pacific coast of South America, west of the Andes mountains. The rain shadow on the leeward side of the Andes keeps this over 20 million-year-old desert 50 times drier than the California’s Death Valley. It is the second-driest desert in the world. The Atacama occupies 70,000 square miles in northern Chile, composed mostly of salt basins, sand, and lava flows