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Photos: Atacama, the world’s driest desert blooms after surprise rain
After intense and unexpected rainfall in the north of Chile, parts of the usually arid Atacama desert have turned into a carpet of flowers. This stunning scene is referred to as desierto florido or flowering desert, and typically only happens every five to seven years. This time, heavy rains hit in mid-August, prompting seeds in the ground to germinate.
Updated on: Sep 06, 2017 9:09 AM IST
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The Atacama desert is located in Chile, hundreds of kilometers from the capital Santiago. Earlier this year, what is considered the driest place in the world received an unusual amount of rain and its typically arid landscape is now covered in multicolored flowers. (Martin Bernetti / AFP)
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Scientists think that climatically this is connected to the El Niño phenomenon, which leads to more water evaporation from the Southern Pacific and then more rainfall in South America. (Martin Bernetti / AFP)
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The ‘desierto florido’ (flowering desert) phenomenon usually occurs every five to seven years when rains cause buried seeds to germinate and flower. Surprisingly, this latest boom occurs just two years after its last instance in 2015. (AFP)
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More than 200 species of plant have been found to grow in the area, drawing botanists from across Chile and regions beyond. (Martin Bernetti / AFP)
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On average, the Atacama desert doesn’t get more than 3 millimeters of rain per year. Some weather stations have never received rain. (Martin Bernetti / AFP)
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The beautiful blooming desert is a popular tourist attraction as the Atacama scenery is usually so extreme that the region has been compared to that of Mars and has often been used as a Red Planet proxy in both films and for scientific testing for future missions. (Martin Bernetti / AFP)
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Tourism officials said they hoped more flowers would bloom in the coming weeks as different species germinate at different times. (AFP)
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