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Why is Atacama Desert known as one of the driest places in the world?
Wiki User
∙ 8y ago
There are actually more then two factors:
1.) The high Andes Mountains to the east that block moisture from the Amazon Basin and Atlantic Ocean from reaching the Atacama.
2.) The coastal mountain ranges that prevent Pacific moisture from reaching the desert.
3.) The cold Humboldt Current in the Pacific brings cold water to the coastline that has little evaporation.
4.) A perpetual inversion layer hangs over the desert. The upper atmosphere is warmer than the surface air. This prevents convection that could form rain clouds.
5.) Even when there is evaporation from the Pacific, the prevailing winds are from the east and the moisture is blown in a westerly direction, away from the desert.
Wiki User
∙ 9y ago
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Is the Nazca Desert the world's driest desert?
The Sechura Desert (also known as the Nazca Desert) is not the driest in the world. It does border on the Atacama Desert which many consider the driest desert.
What is the Atacama Desert's geographic significance?
it is known as the driest place on earth
What place in Chile is known as the driest place in earth?
The Atacama Desert.
What is the name of the Earth's driest desert near Peru?
Some scientists argue that the driest desert is the Antarctic Desert, others that the Atacama Desert deserves that honor. However, the Atacama is the closest to the country of Peru and the northern parts of that desert cover the southwestern part of that country.
Is the Atacama Desert one of the driest places on earth?
The Atacama Desert is known as one of the two driest deserts in the world.
What desert lies in South America?
The Atacama Desert, occupying 105,000 square kilometers, is the most famous desert in South America, and is also known to be the driest in the world.
What is the desert in Venezuela called?
Atacama DesertThe Atacama Desert is commonly known as the driest place in the world, especially the surroundings of the abandoned Yungay town (in Antofagasta Region, Chile).
What is the name of the famous Chilean desert?
The Atacama, which covers most of northern Chile is known for being the driest desert on earth. However, some argue that honor goes to the Antarctic Desert.
What is unusual about the Atacama Desert of northern Chile and southern Peru?
The Atacama Desert is known as 'The Driest Place on Earth'. It hasn't seen a drop of rain since record keeping began. Yet somehow, more than a million people squeeze life from this parched land.
What is one of the driest places in the world?
The driest place in the world is Aswan, Egypt which averages less then .02 inches of rainAtacama Desert, Chile: imperceptible rainfall on a yearly basis.The driest place in the world is South America's Atacama Desert. The desert receives only four inches of rain every 1,000 years.The Atacama desert ,found along the coast of Chile, South America - right next to the Pacific Ocean, is the driest place on Earth after the United States Geological Survey .Much of the desert extends up into the Andes mountains and is very high in elevation. Unlike more familiar deserts, like the Sahara desert in Africaand the Mojave in California, the Atacama is actually a pretty cold place, with average daily temperatures ranging between 0°C and 25°C.
Where is the driest place on earth?
It is actually the Antarctica. Parts of the continant hasn't seen rain for 2,000,000 years! A desret is a place that getslessthan 254 mm (10 inches) of rain a year, the Sahara gets just 25 mm (1 inch) a year. Antarctica's average annual rainfall is about the same, but 2% of it, known as the Dry Valleys is free of ice and snow and it never rains there at all. The next driest place is the Atacama desert in Chile. In some areas, no rain has fallen there for 400 years and its average annual rainfall is a tiny 0.1 mm (0.004 inches). Taken as a whole this makes it the world's driest desert 250 times as dry as the Sahara.
Where do you find Uluru and the Atacama Desert?
Uluru, also known as Ayer's Rock, is a large rock formtion found in the southern Northern Territory of central Australia. The Atacama Desert is a long and thin desert located mostly in Chile between the Andes Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. It is the driest area on Planet Earth.
