ATACAMA DESERT

The Atacama Desert (Spanish: Desierto de Atacama) is a plateau in South America, covering a 1,000-kilometre (600 mi) strip of land on the Pacific coast, west of the Andes mountains. It is the driest non-polar desert in the world.[1][2][3][4] According to estimates the Atacama Desert proper occupies 105,000 square kilometres (41,000 sq mi),[5] or 128,000 square kilometres (49,000 sq mi) if the barren lower slopes of the Andes are included.[6] Most of the desert is composed of stony and felsic lava that flows towards the Andes.

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