The sparsely populated desert along the coast of Peru and Chile is the Atacama Desert. It stretches along the Pacific coast from northern Chile into southern Peru, and is renowned for being one of the driest places on Earth with extremely low rainfall and harsh arid conditions.
Context and geography
- Location: Primarily in northern Chile, extending southward along the coast, with some consideration of adjacent Peruvian coastal areas as part of the coastal arid belt by different sources.
- Extent: Roughly 1,000 to 1,100 kilometers (about 600–700 miles) along the coast, with the interior featuring the Tamarugal Plain and other desert basins.
- Climate and ecology: Hyperarid to arid conditions with coastal fog (garúa) contributing moisture; sparse permanent population outside of coastal towns.
Notable features
- Coastal geography: A coastal mountain barrier (Cordillera de la Costa) with abrupt coastal cliffs in parts, separating the sea from interior basins.
- Population pattern: Most settlements are along the Pacific coastline, while interior regions are extremely sparsely populated due to the arid environment.
If you’d like, I can pull more detailed sources or a concise comparison with adjacent deserts to contextualize its climate and settlement patterns.
