In a happy accident, scientists found a potential solution to an atmospheric chemistry mystery. Their findings could be a missing piece in the iodine cycle and in atmospheric models.
Atacama Desert
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Understanding Rare Rain Events in the Driest Desert on Earth
A new study reveals the atmospheric paths of storm events that can deliver a decade’s worth of rain in a few hours to the Atacama Desert.
Posted inNews
Glassy Nodules Pinpoint a Meteorite Impact
Researchers working in Chile’s Atacama Desert have collected thousands of “atacamaites” that suggest a meteorite struck the region roughly 8 million years ago.
Posted inNews
Desert Microbes Mine for Water
Scientists studying a cyanobacterium isolated from rock samples in the Atacama Desert found out how the bacteria extract water to live. Their results may help identify likely sites for life on Mars.
Posted inNews
Oldest Meteorite Collection Found in World’s Oldest Desert
Rare 2-million-year record reveals the meteorite flux rate.
Posted inNews
Atacama’s Past Rainfall Followed Pacific Sea Temperature
This is the first paleoclimate record of precipitation near Atacama’s hyperarid core and suggests that its moisture source is different from that of the Andes.
Posted inNews
Atacama Desert’s Unprecedented Rains Are Lethal to Microbes
Rainfall in the driest parts of Chile’s Atacama Desert in 2017 resulted in hypersaline lagoons that killed the majority of microbes adapted to millions of years of arid conditions.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Rocks in Chile Help Scientists Hunt for Life on Mars
Investigating oxalate minerals in the Atacama Desert provides a terrestrial analogue to test techniques that could be used to study the carbon cycle in the cold deserts of Mars.