Kawasan Paling Kering

Map of Atacama Desert. The area most commonly defined as Atacama is yellow.

In orange are the outlying arid areas of Sechura Desert, Altiplano,Puna de Atacama and Norte Chico.

 

Some parts of Atacama Desert, especially, surroundings of the abandoned Yungay town (in Antofagasta Region, Chile) are arguably the driest places on Earth, and are virtually sterile because are blocked from moisture on both sides by the Andes mountains and by the Chilean Coast Range. A coastal inversion layer created by the cold Humboldt Current and the anticyclone of the Pacific is essential to keeping the climate of the Atacama dry. 

The average rainfall in the Chilean region of Antofagasta is just 1 millimetre (0.04 in) per year. Some weather stations in the Atacama have never received rain. Evidence suggests that the Atacama may not have had any significant rainfall from 1570 to 1971.It is so arid that mountains that reach as high as 6,885 metres (22,589 ft) are completely free of glaciers and, in the southern part from 25°S to 27°S, may have been glacier-free throughout the Quaternary, though permafrost extends down to an altitude of 4,400 metres (14,400 ft) and is continuous above 5,600 metres (18,400 ft). Studies by a group of British scientists have suggested that some river beds have been dry for 120,000 years.