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Atacama Desert

Deep drilling in the Atacama Desert in 2017
Posted inNews

Atacama’s Past Rainfall Followed Pacific Sea Temperature

Kimberly M. S. Cartier, News Writing and Production Intern for Eos.org by Kimberly M. S. Cartier 23 April 20194 April 2023

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.

This lagoon appeared in 2017 in Chile’s Atacama Desert and evaporated months later.
Posted inNews

Atacama Desert’s Unprecedented Rains Are Lethal to Microbes

Katherine Kornei, Science Writer by Katherine Kornei 12 November 201812 April 2022

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.

CSalar-Grande-Basin-Chile-rock-minerals-clues-to-carbon-cycle-life-on-Mars
Posted inResearch Spotlights

Rocks in Chile Help Scientists Hunt for Life on Mars

by M. McKinnon 9 August 201612 April 2022

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.

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