There are areas that receive little rain but dense fog moves in from the Pacific Ocean and provides enough moisture for lichens and a few cacti to survive. There are rare oasis were a few more plants can survive but these are quite uncommon. Most of the desert is devoid of plant life, however.

There are few species of spiders and scorpions in the Atacama and only in isolated areas. If any are seen in cities or towns they probably hitch-hiked in on freight shipments from other areas.

Some are able to get the moisture they need from the food they eat. Some are able to harvest some water from the dense fogs that occur in some parts of the Atacama.

Both the Amazon River and the Atacama Desert are located in South America.

Some of the plants that live in the Atacama Desert are salt bushes, buckwheat bushes, black bushes, rice grass, little leaf horse brush, black sage, and chrysothamnus. However, these plants only survive in areas where there is, at least, seasonal surface water or oasis. In some areas the only plants to be seen are a few lichens and cacti that survive from water vapor brought in by dense fog from the Pacific Ocean.

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.

No current passes through the Atacama Desert but the Humbolt, or Peruvian Current, passes just off shore and has a great influence on the climate of the Atacama.

Both the Amazon and the Atacama desert owe their very existence to the Andes Mountains. The general flow of the atmosphere is from east to west in South America. As the Atlantic moisture is forced up the high Andes Mountains it drops most of its rain and snow on the eastern slopes that feed the Amazon River and its tributaries. Since the moisture has difficulty crossing the mountains, the western side lies in a rain shadow and little to no precipitation occurs, forming the Atacama Desert.

Technically, the Atacama is classified as a cold desert. In actuality, the climate is quite mild. The high temperature rarely rises above 80 degrees F and the low rarely drops below 32 degrees F. The temperature is moderated by the Atacama's close proximity to the Pacific Ocean.

the Atacama Desert is located in-between the Andes mountains and the Pacific Ocean

The prevailing winds are from the east and the tall Andes Mountains prevent any moisture from the Atlantic Ocean and Amazon basin from reaching the area. The Coastal Range prevents any moisture from the Pacific from reaching the Atacama. Rain does fall in some parts of the desert but it amounts to little more than a sprinkle.

The Atacama is located to the west of the Andes Mountains in northern Chile and southern Peru.

The Sahara Desert is a hot, sandy desert. Antarctica is a continent with a large desert covering much of it's surface. It is of course cold and much of it consists of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet, although the dry valleys in the trans-antarctic mountains are not ice covered, and have sand dunes like more temperate deserts.

There are a number of large salares (salt lakes) in the Atacama Desert. Flamingos feed on small invertebrates and algae that are able to survive in water with a very high salt content. Flamingos are filter feeders. They insert their beaks into the water (with their heads upside down) and take in water along with food particles. They then filter out the water using their tongues and beaks and swallow the food.

Both of them owe their existence to the Andes Mountains and both are high plateaus between two mountain ranges.

The Altiplano is much colder than the Atacama Desert.
The Altiplano receives more precipitation than the Atacama Desert.
The Altiplano has considerably more vegetation than the Atacama Desert.
The Altiplano has a much higher average elevation than the Atacama Desert.

Water is brought in from elsewhere by aqueduct or pipeline. In some areas it may be trucked in. A few areas have set up equipment to extract water from the fog that moves in from the Pacific Ocean.

There are parts of the Atacama that have not recorded any measurable rainfall since the arrival of Europeans over 400 years ago.

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. The air above the current is cooled so that it holds very little moisture.

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.

The Atacama Desert is a long, narrow desert bordered on one side by the Andes Mountains and the other by the Pacific Ocean in South America. The greater part is located in Chile but smaller parts also enter Peru, Argentina and Bolivia. It is considered by many scientists as the driest desert on earth.

There are areas that receive little rain but dense fog moves in from the Pacific Ocean and provides enough moisture for lichens and a few cacti to survive. There are rare oasis were a few more plants can survive but these are quite uncommon. Most of the desert is devoid of plant life, however.

The Atacama is primarily found in Chile and Peru but small parts enter Bolivia and Argentina.

The Atacama is primarily found in Chile and Peru but small parts enter Bolivia and Argentina.

One of the driest places on Earth is the Atacama. It's a desert, partly due to landforms. For it's so fenced in by the Andes Mountains on one side, and by the Chilean Coast Range on the other, that moisture can't get through either way. The Atacama is a desert, also partly due to patterns of air and water circulation. For the Humboldt current runs all along the Chilean and southern Peruvian coasts. But its cold waters flow northwestward, and away from the coastal range. The same northwestward flow can be said of the anticyclonic air pattern. So circulatory patterns of air and water, and mountain barriers, move moisture away from the Atacama.

The Atacama is a plateau and has mountains bordering it. It also has salares or salt lakes which are usually dry, some volcanic activity in the form of hot springs, geisers, a few volcanoes and sand dunes.