Atacama desert ?

Question

it is located on south America behind the Ands mountains so how ?

as the ocean could the wind transportes from Pacific ocean carried with water and droped or rainy on the Atacama loction

So how it became desert in your opinion ?

Answer 1

Reason One:

The Atacama Desert, Chile, IS affected by the Pacific Ocean. If you look at a map showing the various ocean currents you will see a cold water current coming from the the south (Antarctic Circle area) and travelling north following the coastline of Chile - called the Humbolt Current/Peru Current.

Winds do come from the west (not the major system) and travel over the Pacific and hits the shore of Chile. But, the winds are dry! The winds travel over the cold Humbolt current and become cool winds - unable to pick up the moisture. (very little evaporation when ocean current is cold). Dry wind hits the land and no rain. Not only that, the dry wind on land becomes warmer, and now wants to suck up the water. It does! It tries to suck up every single bit of water it can from the land - just making the area even drier than it would be.

That's part of the reason there is an 'Atacama Desert'

Reason Two:

The major wind system does come form the east. It drops all its rain on the windward side of the mountains (east side) causing the ocean side (the leeward side) to be the rain shadow area. Any rains fall on the east side not the west side thus a desert on the west side - the 'Atacama'.

Ocean Currents map

http://www.uwsp.edu/geo/faculty/ritter/i...

Wind systems map

http://www.its-about-time.com/pdfs/oall....

http://www.its-about-time.com/pdfs/oall....

Answer 2

The prevailing winds in the Atacama are not westerly, like in southern Chile.  

The trade winds affect the northern end of the desert, and they come down the Andes, drying out and warming up as they descend.  

The rest of the Atacama is in the same desert belt as the Sahara, the Namib and the Great Sandy Desert of Western Australia.  Descending air, drawn upward over the equatorial regions, sinks, drying and warming so that no rain falls.