{"id":22778,"date":"2025-10-11T11:45:36","date_gmt":"2025-10-11T06:15:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=22778"},"modified":"2025-10-11T12:46:24","modified_gmt":"2025-10-11T07:16:24","slug":"atacama-desert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/atacama-desert\/","title":{"rendered":"Atacama Desert"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Atacama Desert Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Scientists are studying a small, resilient flower Cistanthe longiscapa in Chile\u2019s arid Atacama that could hold genetic clues to help crops withstand worsening drought conditions driven by climate change.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Atacama Desert<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Location:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It is the driest desert in the world, located in <\/span><b>northern Chile.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is nestled between the <\/span><b>Andes Mountains<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> on the east and the <\/span><b>Pacific Ocean on the west<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It forms a continuous strip for nearly <\/span><b>1,000 km<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> along the narrow coast of the northern third of Chile.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Bordered by:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It is bordered by Argentina<\/span><b>, Peru, and Bolivia<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It also hosts <\/span><b>12 volcanoes,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> mainly located in the western outliers of the Andes.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Rainfall:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Average rainfall in this region is about 1 mm per year. Some locations within the desert have never had any rainfall whatsoever.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Temperature:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Temperatures are comparatively mild throughout the year. The average temperature in the desert is <\/span><b>about 63 degrees F (18 degrees C).<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Natural Resources:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> This region has the largest natural <\/span><b>supply of Sodium Nitrate<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which can be used for producing fertilizers and explosives, amongst other things.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Chinchorro Mummies:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The oldest artificially mummified human remains have been found in the Atacama Desert.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>What is Cistanthe longiscapa?<\/b><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is a small, resilient flower known locally <\/span><b>as \u201cpata de guanaco,\u201d<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> blooms during rare rainfall events in the <\/span><b>Atacama desert.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It has the ability to switch <\/span><b>between different types of photosynthesis<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, making it a model plant for extreme environments.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Under stress from drought, intense sunlight or salinity, the plant activates a water-saving method known as <\/span><b>Crassulacean Acid Metabolism (CAM) metabolism<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When conditions improve, it reverts to the more common C3 photosynthesis.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source: <\/b><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/ddnews.gov.in\/en\/chiles-atacama-desert-flower-could-hold-key-to-drought-tolerant-crops\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">DD News<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Atacama Desert is nestled between the Andes Mountains on the east and the Pacific Ocean on the west. Read more about Atacama Desert, Location, Bordering Countries, Latest News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":68128,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3184],"class_list":{"0":"post-22778","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-atacama-desert","9":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}