The Latest Breaking News from Atacama

Why a Chilean salt flat is a microcosm of the extractive frontiers of green capitalism

In the Atacama desert, the extraction of lithium – so crucial to addressing the climate crisis – comes with escalating social and environmental costs

The Guardian - UK · Oct 11

It's spring in the Southern Hemisphere and even Chile's Atacama Desert is blossoming

Spring has arrived in the Southern Hemisphere, and even Chile's Atacama Desert is blossoming

The Independent UK · Oct 1

El Niño transforms Atacama desert as thousands of hectares burst into bloom

Exceptionally heavy El Niño rains have awakened millions of seeds lying dormant underground, carpeting vast swathes of one of the planet's driest places with flowers.

Euronews · Sep 23

Atacama Desert’s center dried out 20 million years earlier than previously thought — before the Andes formed

Chile's Atacama Desert, which gets less than 5 millimeters (0.2 inches) of rainfall each year, started to form more than 40 million years ago ‪—‬ 20 million years before the Andes.

LiveScience · Jun 15

Inside Chile's spectacular Atacama super bloom: The desert that blooms once every few years

The Atacama Desert in northern Chile holds the record for being the driest non-polar desert on Earth. Some parts of it go decades without a single drop of rain. It looks, for most of the year, like a place where nothing could survive. And then, every few years, something extraordinary…

The Times of India · Jun 15

A 29-pound Mars rock held NASA's Curiosity rover hostage for 6 days (video)

The rock is nicknamed "Atacama."

Space · May 7

Watch NASA's Curiosity rover 'struggle' to remove a rock that got stuck on its robotic arm for nearly a week

New footage shows NASA's Curiosity rover tilting, rotating and vibrating its robotic arm as mission scientists tried to remove a rock that became stuck on a drill for six days.

LiveScience · May 7

Life 2 meters underground: Scientists discover hidden microbial oasis beneath Chile’s driest desert

Beneath the extremely dry surface of Chile’s Atacama Desert, scientists discovered a functional community of microorganisms that challenges what we thought possible for life. While the ground above remains one of Earth's harshest environments, a ‘hidden oasis’ lies about two meters down, protected from high solar irradiance and complete dryness.…

The Times of India · May 7

The threat of light pollution puts the world’s darkest skies in the Atacama Desert at risk

The Atacama Desert in Chile offers some of the clearest views of the universe, thanks to its dry climate, high altitude and isolation from light pollution

The Independent UK · Apr 26

Rare dusting of snow covers one of the driest places on Earth and shuts down massive radio telescope — Earth from space

A satellite photo from July shows intricate snowy stripes painted across the Atacama Desert in Chile. The icy weather temporarily put the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observatory into "survival mode."

LiveScience · Dec 23, 2025