Atacama Desert


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At·a·ca·ma Desert

 (ăt′ə-kăm′ə, ä′tä-kä′mä)
An arid region of northwest Chile. One of the driest areas in the world, it has yielded great nitrate and copper wealth.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Atacama Desert

(Spanish ataˈkama)
n
(Placename) a desert region along the W coast of South America, mainly in N Chile: a major source of nitrates. Area: about 80 000 sq km (31 000 sq miles)
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

A′ta•ca′ma Des′ert

(ˈæt əˈkæm ə, ˌæt-, ˈɑ təˈkɑ mə, ˌɑ tə-)
n.
an arid region in N Chile: nitrate deposits. ab. 70,000 sq. mi. (181,300 sq. km).
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Noun1.Atacama Desert - a desert in northern Chile rich in nitrate and copper depositsAtacama Desert - a desert in northern Chile rich in nitrate and copper deposits
Chile, Republic of Chile - a republic in southern South America on the western slopes of the Andes on the south Pacific coast
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.
References in periodicals archive ?
25 Science, the researchers describe ancient camp sites situated next to now-dry lakebeds in the Atacama Desert and nearby occupation sites at lower elevations.
The first of the three habitats, eMARS, an acronym for earth Mars Atacama Research Station, will be situated in the Atacama Desert at an elevation at or above 2,400 meters.
NIGHT I would squeeze in some sandboarding in the sand dunes of Chile's Atacama Desert before sunset, and then enjoy watching the Milky Way move across the vast sky.
Synopsis: Adrian Rohnfelder cycles high above the steaming rainforests in the Kilimanjaro massif, crosses the seething heat of the Atacama Desert in Chile, and climbs the summit of Orizaba under dramatic circumstances.
The study, conducted by the team of Kimberly Warren-Rhodes and the NASA Life in Atacama Project Team, has discovered microbes in the Atacama desert. The desert makeup is considered to be very similar to the Martian surface, and the findings supported the possibility that microbes could also survive on the Red Planet.
A NASA rover deployed to Chileas Atacama desert has discovered microbes in one of the most Mars-like environments on Earth.
A pair of vicunas appear to hug as they smash into one another in a violent turf war in the remote Atacama Desert. The feisty animals, which are distant relatives of llamas, can be see scrapping and biting at one another as they engage in the heated duel.
BRITAIN'S fittest pensioner, who ran 18 marathons last year at the age of 73, is now planning to run across Chile's daunting Atacama Desert.
"The Tarapaca Declaration" draws attention to the urgent need to change how human societies have been using water in the Atacama Desert, based on a historical trajectory spanning several millennia.
Smit and colleagues first found the two galaxies in deep Spitzer Space Telescope images, then followed up using the Atacama Large Millimeter/sub-millimeter Array (ALMA), a network of radio dishes high in the Atacama Desert in Chile.
Led by Washington State University planetary scientist Dirk Schulze-Makuch, an international team studied the driest corner of South America's Atacama Desert, where decades pass without any rain.