Atacama: the driest desert in the world

NATURAL WONDERS

The dictionary defines a biome with the name of "desert" as the area of ​​land in which rainfall rarely exceeds 250 mm per year. How do we call a place where it rains every 15 years??? Just something sub-classified (and note that it is not redundant) like a "dry" desert.

The Atacama Desert, the driest in the world, is located in the north of Chile, in the regions of Arica and Parinacota, Tarapaca, Antofagasta and northern Atacama Region. This desert is surrounded by the Andes mountains and the coast, covering about 105 000 km ². It is part of the Pacific Desert ecoregion, which includes all the coastal deserts of Chile and Peru.

The main cause of its origin is a global climatic phenomenon at this latitude creates deserts on the western coasts of all the continents of the Southern Hemisphere. Great stable high pressure systems known as anticyclones Pacific, remain along the coast, creating winds eastward moving storms. Moreover, the Humboldt Current carries cold water from Antarctica northward along the Chilean and Peruvian coast, water cooling sea breezes from the west, reduces evaporation and creates a cold air inversion-immobilized under a layer of warm air, preventing the formation of large clouds, producing rain.

The Atacama Desert is rich in metallic mineral resources such as copper, gold, silver and iron, as well as non-metallic minerals, among which significant deposits of boron, lithium, sodium nitrate and potassium salts. Also notable is the Salar de Atacama, which extracts the bischofita, permazante agent used in road construction.

Sports in the desert, the Atacama Desert is home to the world's athletesof the road. In this desert there have been various Baja Atacama Rally Championships, Rally Baja Chile, Patagonia Atacama Rally, and received the Dakar Rally Series in 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012, organized by ASO This desert dunes are ideal for this type of sport, located on the outskirts of the city of Copiapo, Atacama Region.

Easter Island: awe in the ocean

NATURAL WONDERS


We asked many times as did the Egyptians to build such large pyramids with a few Chinese sinless perfection or worked in more than 8,000 km. wall that extends across the width of your country. This time, we were amazed of the legacy left by an ancient population in a small, isolated island of the Pacific Ocean: Easter Island and its sympathetic and enigmatic moai.Easter Island is a Chilean island located in Polynesia, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. It has an area of ​​163.6 km ², making it the largest island of the insular Chile, and a population of 5,034 inhabitants, mainly concentrated in Hanga Roa, existing capital and only town on the island.
The island is one of the main tourist destinations because of its natural beauty and its mysterious ancient culture of ethnic Rapanui, whose most notable trace corresponds to huge statues known as moai. To preserve these characteristics, the government Conaf administered through the Rapa Nui National Park, while UNESCO declared the park as a World Heritage Site in 1995.5
According to oral tradition, the Rapa Nui people have come to this island from a mythical island called Hiva, being led by Hotu Matua, the first ariki, or king, by the fourth century. According to archaeological research, the origin of this ethnic group come from Polynesia, possibly from the Marquesas Islands. Recent theories postulate that Rapa Iti would be the legendary Hiva which allegedly came from the ancestors of the Easter Island natives as Rapa Nui mythology. In the coastal centers established religious, political and ceremonial (as in Anakena and Akahanga) and worshiped almost deified ancestors represented by the moai. Still do not know how this was done construction and displacement from these sculptures, of which there are about a thousand.
In 1887, Chile wishes to annex the island to the Chilean territory, for which commissions the captain of the Chilean Navy Policarpo Toro, who conducted negotiations through the purchase of land on the island at the request of the Bishop of Valparaíso, owner of 600 acres , together with the brothers Salmon, Dutrou-Bornier and John Brander, of Tahiti, that even though, according to tradition, the land could not be sold.
Then, on September 9, 1888, Chile was able to sign a treaty, represented by Atamu Tekena. Document was drafted in Spanish and one in Rapanui mixed with Tahitian. The Spanish text speaks of transfer of sovereignty to Chile, while reserving to the chiefs who attended the agreement, the titles of which were invested and they enjoyed at the time, without referring to the land.