Driest Desert in the World

Atacama Desert-

Driest Desert in the World

The Atacama Desert is a plateau in South America, covering a 600-mile (1,000 km) strip of land on the Pacific coast, west of the Andes mountains.The Atacama occupies 40,600 square miles (105,000 km2) in northern Chile, composed mostly of salt lakes (salares), sand, and felsic lava flows towards the Andes. It is, according to NASA, National Geographic and many other publications, the driest desert in the world. 

The average rainfall in this region is only 1 millimeter (0.04 in) per year. Even some areas in this desert never reported rain since 1570. That’s more than 400 years . This desert area is around 46,000 square miles (105,000 square km). It can be seen from outer space with the naked eye. In this desert there is a space research station of NASA that studying the mars.It’s said that land in the Atacama desert is the same as the land on the planet mars.

 Deep in the the Atacama desert in Chile emerges a giant sculpture of a hand the Mano de Desierto, The Hand of the Desert.  The hand was constructed at an altitude of 1,100 meters above sea level. The work has a base of iron and cement, and stands 11 meters tall.It located about 70 kilometers to the south of Antofagasta, Chile.  The sculpture was inaugurated on March 28, 1992 by Chilean sculptor Mario Irarrázabal.