It is a desert plateau in South America (Chile) and is the driest non-polar desert in the world.
It is situated between the Andes Mountain range and the Chilean Coast Mountain range, covering a distance of 1600 km on the Pacific coast, west of the Andes mountains.
The desert is mainly composed of stony terrain, salt lakes, sand, and lava flowing towards the Andes.
Following are the reasons for the extreme dryness of the desert :
Temperature inversion due to Humboldt Ocean current flowing towards the north.
Presence of strong Pacific anticyclone.
The Atacama Desert is the only true desert to receive less precipitation than the polar deserts.
The Atacama Desert is the largest fog desert in the world.
Additional Information
Thar desert
It is also known as the Great Indian Desert and is situated northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent.
The majority portion of the desert (85%) is found in India and the remaining part of the desert is found in Pakistan.
In India, the desert spreads across Rajasthan, Gujarat, Punjab, and Haryana.
Sahara desert
It is the largest hot desert found in the African continent and third overall as it is smaller only than the deserts of Antarctica and the Arctic.
It stretches across - Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Sudan, Tunisia, and Western Sahara.
Gobi desert
The cold winter desert is located in China and Mongolia.
It is a rain-shadow desert, the 2nd largest in Asia, and the 6th overall.
A world map with deserts shaded orange and named, including the Sahara, Gobi, Central Asian, Taklamakan, Arabian, Namib, Kalahari, Atakama and Australia deserts.
