The Atacama Desert Essay -- Chile Geography

The Atacama DesertAbstract sole(prenominal) of the largest mountain ranges and oceans, earths most well-known physical features are its great desert vicinitys. The word desert often conjures up ideas of spread out expanses of sand and towering dunes blown by perpetual wind and propagate storms. Moreover, forsake are often categorized as being strictly light-haired, hot, and extremely dry. Only part of this assumption is correct. Furthermore, the categorizing of deserts as such(prenominal) illustrates how little knowledge many people in fact give up of desert regions of the earth.The notion that either deserts are hot and sandy is especially erroneous. The surrounding landforms, air temperature, and soil composition have no bearing on whether or not a humour region is classified as a dessert. The sole characteristic used in classifying climate regions as a desert is aridity a escape of moisture (Cressy 390). Deserts can be defined as regions where less(prenominal) than 10 i nches of liquid equivalent precipitation falls each year. A better definition is any climatic region where evaporation considerably exceeds precipitation for most of the year (Cressey 390). Thus, based on this definition it is throw that deserts are not regulated to hot low analog regions of the earth.Deserts are found at all latitudes, and encompass all air temperature ranges found on earth. Deserts types range from hot hyper-arid deserts such as the Sahara to less known and rather unusual cool coastal deserts such as the Atacama. Although the Atacama does embody hyper-arid characteristics, the Atacama Desert is primarily classified as a cool coastal desert. The remainder of this subject will focus specifically on the physical characteristics of the Atacama Desert.TopographyLocated in northern Chile... ...tley, Adrian J. 150 million years of climatic stability try outfrom the Atacama Desert, northern Chile. Journal of the Geological Society 162.3 (2005)421-.Kampf, Stephanie K. Evaporation and land come on energy budget at theSalar de Atacama, Northern Chile. Journal of Hydrology 310.1-4(2005)236-.Lamb, Simon. Cenozoic climate change as a possible cause for the riseof the Andes. personality 425.6960 (2003)792-.Light, Mary. Atacama Revisited Desert Trails Seen from the Air.Geographical Review 36.4 (1946)525-545.Mooney. Atmospheric Water Uptake by an Atacama Desert Shrub. Science209.4457 (1980)693-694.Oppenheimer, Robert. National Capital and National Development pay Chile. The Business History Review 56.1 (1982)54-75.Rudolph, William. The Rio Loa of Northern Chile. Geographical Review17.4 (1927)553-585.