Most driest desert in the whole world

Atacama desert

The world’s driest desert is in the world is Atacama and is a rainless plateau which is in South America. It covers nearly 966 Km strip of land on the pacific coast of SA, to the west of Andes Mountains. This Atacama desert was named as the most driest desert in the whole world by the national geographic and many other publications. Atacama occupies 40,600 square miles in northern chile which is composed mostly of salt basins, sand and felsic lava flows towards the andes.

In the year 2003 a group of researchers provided interesting news is that in Atacama Desert the type of the soil found is also seen on Mars planet. Atacama region is more sparsely populated but it has most of the cities located along pacific coast. Atacama was called as source of wealth as there was copper mining since 1950s and it is been continuing now also. Two main important mines naming Escondida and Chuquicamata Porphyry are located in centre of this desert and both of them are copper wealth mines. Most protected areas near Atacama desert are Pan de Azucar National Park, Pampa del Tamarugal National Reserve and La Chimba National Reserve