what is the driest place on earth?

Answer 1

The Atacama desert along the coast of Chile, South America - right next to the Pacific Ocean is the driest place on earth.♥

Answer 2

There is a disagreement about the driest place on earth. Driest means little or no precipitation so a desert has to be at the top of the list, such as the Atacama Desert in Chile. However, the South Pole has also been named the driest place because cold air has little or no moisture. The only water that falls in the South Pole is in the form of snow. We can't leave out deserts so if we eliminate the South Pole, that leaves the Atacama Desert as the driest place on earth.
Ironically, the driest place in the world is next to the biggest body of water - the Pacific Ocean. Some areas of the Atacama Desert haven't had rainfall for 400 years. Normally, it rains every 100 years. Atacama is a desert but you'll still need to bring warm clothes when you visit. Oddly enough, the Atacama is a cold place with temperatures somewhere between 0 and 25 degrees Celsius.

You might think deserts never get any rain but think again. Once in a while a warming effect over the Pacific Ocean affects weather all over the world so even the driest places can be drenched by rainstorms. Atacama always has salt lakes, snow on the mountaintops and some underground water, regardless of how long it's been since the last rainfall.

While you probably couldn't convince your parents to move to the Atacama Desert, there are animals, plants and even people who live in the bone dry region. Some plants have adapted to the environment by developing taproots that run extremely deep into the ground and collect water below. There is even a town called Calama which comes complete with motels, restaurants and shops. So far, the town hasn't seen rain yet. Otherwise, the desert is an empty, lonely place. There are a few dead bodies though. Because the area is so dry, buried Indians have been dried perfectly preserved, turning them into mummies.

Answer 3

Driest Place is Desert Atacama... here is some other info.. Even the Driest Place on Earth has Water The Atacama desert is found along the coast of Chile, South America - right next to the Pacific Ocean - the biggest body of water in the world. Much of the desert extends up into the Andes mountains and is very high in elevation. Unlike more familiar deserts, like the Sahara desert in Africa and the Mojave in California, the Atacama is actually a pretty cold place, with average daily temperatures ranging between 0°C and 25°C. The annual rainfall (or lack of it) defines a desert, but that doesn't mean that it never rains in Atacama. Every so often a warming effect over the Pacific Ocean around the equator changes the weather the world over and even places like the driest desert in the world can become doused with drenching storms. Even though Atacama gets almost no rainfall, there is water in this arid place and you'll find it in the following places: Salt Lakes During years of heavy rainfall in the distant past, enough water accumulated in basins found throughout the Andes to create lakes. Some of the lakes got their water from melting glaciers at the end of the last ice age. But in some lakes in the Andes mountains, such as Atacama, more water is lost through evaporation than is replaced by rainfall so the lakes are drying up. As the water evaporates, the mineral salts in the water become more concentrated, creating very salty water. Snow In the higher elevations when precipitation comes to Atacama snow falls instead of rain. There are small patches of unmelted snow in the mountain tops where in never gets warm enough to melt the snow. Underground Anywhere you go in the world, regardless of how much or little it rains, there is always water underground. After it rains, some of the rainwater evaporates back into the air, but much of it trickles down into the ground and stays there - even in the desert. How much water and where depends on a number of things; soil composition, air and soil surface temperature, amount and frequency of rainfall/precipitation, and drainage. Since the Andes is a volcanically active mountain range, the magma beneath the ground will heat the groundwater in certain places causing geysers to erupt.

Answer 4

Why do most of you opt for the Atacama desert, can you really expect me to believe that some 400 years ago some poor old sod sat down with his diary and marked every day.. no rain again. most written records only go back about twenty years at the most.

Assuming this poor old sod was active writing down what the days were like, who would challenge him for missing a day?

Answer 5

Antarctica

Answer 6

Next to Antartica, I think Australiaa is the next driest continent.( not sure about Antartica but Australia is second)

Answer 7

Antartica, North Pole

Answer 8

According to me it is the Atacama Desert in Chile. It didn't rain there ( in some places ) since 400 years.

Answer 9

The Atacama Desert in Chile which records almost no rainfall in any given year.

Answer 10

The Atacama Desert in Peru. Apparently no rain has ever been recorded there.