Atacama Desert

San Pedro de Atacama, a small oasis town with Spanish-Indian architecture, in the northern desert of Chile. It has a population of less than 1,000, and derives its income from agriculture and tourism.

The Atacama Desert in northern Chile. This cool, arid region, one of the driest parts of the world, stretches south along the Chilean coast. It lies between the low coastal mountains of the west coast and the foothills of the Andes in the east. A sandy area is shown here, but the region also contains pebbled pavements and salt pans.

Arid coastal region of northern Chile, with an area of about 80,000 sq km/31,000 sq mi, and extending south from the Peruvian border for 965 km/600 mi. It consists of a series of salt pans within a plateau region. Its rainless condition is caused by the Peru Current offshore; any moist airstreams from the Amazon basin are blocked by the Andean Mountains. The desert has silver and copper mines, and extensive nitrate and iodine deposits. The main population centres are the ports of Antofagasta and Iquique.

The world's largest and most powerful optical telescope is situated at the Cerro Paranal Space Observatory (1999), which has four 8.2 m/27 ft-diameter reflector telescopes.