The Atacama Desert in northern Chile is the driest non-glacial place on Earth. In some areas, there hasn't been rain for hundreds of years. The landscape here is so inhospitable, red, and lifeless that scientists have dubbed it the "Chilean Mars." Here, NASA and the European Space Agency test rovers, search for extreme life forms, and prepare for the conquest of the Red Planet. Let's understand why the Atacama is so similar to Mars and what we can learn about the Universe without leaving Earth. Geographic Location and Uniqueness The Atacama stretches for 1000 km along the Pacific coast of Chile, between the Andes and the Coastal Cordillera. The width of the desert is 100-150 km. Its uniqueness lies in its extreme aridity. In the city of Calama, the average annual rainfall is 5 mm, and in some parts of the desert (such as in the Yarai region), rainfall has not been recorded since people began keeping records. The reason is the "double shadow effect": the Andes block moist air masses from the east (from the Amazon), and the Coastal Cordillera from the west (from the Pacific Ocean). Moreover, the cold Peru Current cools the air near the coast, preventing it from rising and forming clouds. As a result, the Atacama is drier than the Sahara Desert and even the dry valleys of Antarctica. Landscape: Martian landscapes Red-orange rocks, salt flats, dunes, dry riverbeds, volcanic cones—all this resembles panoramas captured by rovers. The Valley of the Moon (Valle de la Luna) is particularly famous, where erosion has created bizarre stone formations resembling lunar craters. The Salar de Atacama Salt Lake, with its salt crust and lagoons inhabited by flamingos, seems like an alien oasis. In some places, the soil contains minerals such as gypsum and hematite, which are also found on Mars. It's no wonder that directors choose the Atacama for filming space movies ("2001: A Space Odyssey," "Interstellar," the "Mars" series). Climate and Life in Conditions Similar to Martia ... Read more