Amazing places on earth with extreme climates. Dry Valleys in Antarctica: the driest place on Earth

When a particularly hot summer happens, people look forward to the rains that could calm the unbearable heat and beat down the dust. But there are places on our planet where rain can be expected for years. Until recently, people believed that the driest place on Earth is in the Chilean Atacama, but it turned out that there is an even more arid piece of land in the most unexpected place.

1. Dry Valleys, Antarctica (0 mm precipitation per year)

We imagine this mainland clad in a shell perennial ice, but meanwhile there are valleys called "dry". And this is not accidental, because there is the most dry place on the planet. These three valleys (Wright, Victoria, Taylor) are located near McMurdo Sound in Victoria Land. They represent a vast area not covered with ice. Here, the strongest katabatic winds on the planet (320 km/h) blow to the north, which carry away all the moisture from the valleys.
It is assumed that there has been no snow here for 8 million years. But such a harsh climate turned out to be ideal for many studies, so the Dry Valleys are taken under special protection. local climate closest to Mars, which is why NASA tested the Viking landers there. Surprisingly, the channel of the mainland's longest river, the Onyx, passes through these valleys, and there is also a partially frozen super-salty Lake Vida, the water of which is 5 times saltier than the ocean. It is covered with a centuries-old ice shell about 20 meters thick.

2. Atacama, Chile (0 mm precipitation per year)

It was the South American Atacama Desert that has long been considered the driest place in the world. The desert begins near the Chilean-Peruvian border and then stretches parallel to the Pacific coast, covering an area of ​​105,000 square meters. km. Basically, this desert is mountainous, and the cause of dryness is the “rain shadow” effect - the steep Andes do not let clouds from the Pacific Ocean pass, which pour their supply only on the coast.
There are places in the Atacama where last time it rained at the end of the Middle Ages. And in other places, the rain is like a miracle that happens once in many years. Atacama cannot be called a hot desert with its average daily temperature no more than 25 degrees. Here it is both dry and quite cool, and even cold. But life has somehow adapted here too - plants draw moisture from thick fogs. In the middle of the Atacama lies the driest city in the world, Arica, which receives less than 0.8 mm of precipitation per year. Surprisingly, it is also a port to pacific ocean. Therefore, the air here is quite humid, clouds are actively forming over the city, but they do not rain, or rather, raindrops simply do not reach the ground, evaporating earlier.

3. Al-Kufra, Libya (0.86 mm of precipitation per year)

The driest African inhabited place is the Libyan city of Al-Kufra, around which, however, there are several oases. Only thanks to the springs gushing out of the ground in them, people and animals manage to survive here. Local residents are engaged in the cultivation of dates, apricots and peaches. Almost the entire settlement is based on the sands of the Sahara, the depth of which reaches 300 meters.

4. Aswan, Egypt (0.86 mm of precipitation per year)

The city of Aswan is known to us thanks to the dam built by Soviet specialists with a hydroelectric power station on the Nile, which is the largest in Egypt. But in the city itself, rain is a rarity. If winds from the sea blow to other parts of Egypt, then in Aswan the weather is almost always dry. Not surprisingly, this city near the northern tropic is hot and dry. There are often strong (160 km / h) hot winds that cause sandstorms. Even in winter it is +20-25 degrees during the day, but by night it gets cool up to +10. But in summer, most often the air is hot above 40 degrees, hot and at night - 25 degrees. The ancient Egyptians took stone to build pyramids in the dry valleys near Aswan.

5. Luxor, Egypt (0.86 mm of precipitation per year)

In the world, Luxor became famous for its antique monuments and structures that have survived to this day. But, besides this, it is also one of the driest places in the world. In winter, a dry, sultry khamsin wind blows from the west of the Sahara, bringing sandstorms that may not calm down for up to two days. During storms, the wind blows at a speed of 150 km / h, and the temperature temporarily rises by 20 degrees. Even when you try to rain, its drops evaporate on the fly, long before reaching the surface of the earth. There are many iconic archaeological sites in and around Luxor itself.
The abundance of antiquities attract many tourists here, so tourism has become an important source of income for the city. Luxor was conventionally divided into "city of the dead" and "city of the living". The first is famous for the Theban necropolis, the valleys of kings and queens, the burial temples of Queen Hatshepsut and Medinet Abu, there are several settlements and living people here. The second is located on the right bank of the Nile and boasts such attractions as the Alley of the Sphinxes, the Luxor Temple, the Temple of Amun-Ra in Karnak, and mainly people live here. locals and built hotels for tourists.

Each culture has its own way of life, traditions and delicacies in particular. What seems normal to some people may be perceived as...

6. Ica, Peru (2.45 mm of precipitation per year)

To the south of the Peruvian capital of Lima, literally on the border with the Atacama Desert, is the city of Ica. In the distant past, this now dusty and arid place was not such. So, in 2007, archaeologists found here the bones of a penguin 1.2 meters tall, which once lived here. Due to the peculiarities of the climate, the local inhabitants of the pre-Columbian era learned to mummify the bodies of the dead, which did not decompose in the absence of moisture. Now this city is interesting for people suffering from asthma, because local air significantly reduces the symptoms of this disease.

7. Wadi Halfa, Sudan (2.45 mm of precipitation per year)

This city is lost in the Sahara near the Egyptian border. It is almost completely devoid of vegetation. To the area in which Wadi Halfa is located, big influence It has hot and dry desert air, so it rightly became one of the driest on the planet.

8. Iquique, Chile (5.08 mm of precipitation per year)

Chile is a very long and narrow country stretching from south to north along Pacific coast South America. In the warmer north of the country and is located seaport Iquique. To the east of it, across the Andes, lies the Atacama Desert. Saltpeter is being developed near the city. You can take a break from dry weather on local beaches. Throughout the year, the weather here is hot to moderately warm, with very rare precipitation in winter period- from June to September.

9. Pelican Point, Namibia (8.13 mm of precipitation per year)

The small pier at Pelican Point is lost among sand dunes African Namibia. The places here are extremely dry. But a small amount of precipitation does not frighten surfers who come here - after all, they are closely connected with the sea, where there is enough water for everyone, and the waves here are very suitable.

Truly, the Earth is a planet of contrasts. More than 70% of its surface is covered with water. Because of this, in some cases it can be safely called the "planet-ocean". And she is unique. Thousands of planets have already been discovered outside the solar system, but none of them has as much water as our blue planet.

For all that, there are areas from which you can form a whole list called "the driest places on earth." Rains in these areas can be expected for a very long time, but never wait. Almost all of them are in deserts. They are united by extremely low average annual rainfall. Even more amazing: there, next to the sands, people live!

Sahara Desert

Two Egyptian contenders for the title of "the driest place on earth" - Luxor and Aswan - cities located on the Nile. architectural complexes ancient Egyptian civilization in Luxor is amazing, and in ancient times, stone was mined near Aswan with its famous dam for strong (150-160 km / h) and hot winds that bring sand with them, and if it suddenly rains, then its drops will evaporate without reaching the ground!

Algerian Aoulef and Libyan El-Kufra, despite the almost complete absence of precipitation, are green thanks to oases and hard human labor. In El Kufr, adjacent to the 300-meter layer of sands of the Sahara, springs gush out of the ground. Here you can enjoy local peaches, dates and apricots. The complete opposite is Wadi Halfa in Sudan, located near the Egyptian border. This city is completely devoid of green spaces. Yes, they are unthinkable in very dry and hot air.

Namib Desert

Is Pelican Point the driest place on earth? Hardly. But in Namibia most territories occupy But this is not just a town, but a pier on the shore. It seems that there is more than enough water here, and there is not much more precipitation than in Wadi Halfa. But the beautiful big Atlantic waves made these places a real paradise for surfers.

Atacama Desert

Welcome to latin america! In Chile, the city of Iquique is located, which in the competition for the title of "the driest place on earth" is located in the ranking just between Wadi Halfa and Pelican Point. And this is a full-fledged Pacific port! On the beaches of Iquique, Chileans are escaping dry weather. They live here not only for the sake of the port, but also for the saltpeter mined in the surrounding desert.

Another Chilean port city - Arica - is five times drier than its fellow countryman. It would seem that there is sufficient humidity, a lot of clouds, but water drops reach the ground very rarely. Moreover, in the adjacent desert there are areas where the last time it rained was several centuries ago!

Another city bordering Atacama is located in Peru. This is Ika. The fact that the climate here was not always deadly dry was confirmed by archaeologists when, during excavations, a large fossilized ... penguin appeared to their eyes! Before the discovery of the New World, local residents mummified their dead tribesmen. Now asthma sufferers come here: the dry air of Ica, they say, greatly relieves their suffering.

And yet, none of the above dwellings of people is called "the driest place on earth."

Antarctica

The only, perhaps, arid region on the planet that is in no way connected with the desert is called very simply: the McMurdo Dry Valleys. In the column of the average precipitation rate opposite this name is a more than eloquent figure - 0. The local places set another amazing record: the wind speed in the Dry Valleys reaches 320 km / h. This is the reason for dryness: all possible moisture is blown out from here. And this process continues, according to scientists, for at least 8 million years!

The driest place in the world is devoid of fauna: not a single animal can survive here. Of all the gigantic diversity of the Earth's biosphere, only frail plants and bacteria were found here. Another eloquent evidence: in the Dry Valleys, natural conditions are strikingly close to Martian. It is no coincidence that in the mid-1970s, NASA tested the landing blocks of the Viking Martian probes, which subsequently successfully worked on Mars, in the harsh conditions of the Dry Valleys.

A dark speck yawns - this is the McMurdo Dry Valleys. Today they are the driest place on our planet. For millions of years there has been neither snow nor rain!

Part of the text by Sofia Demyanets, nat-geo.ru

Dry Valleys - Victoria, Wright and Taylor - cover an area of ​​4,800 sq.m. (this is 0.03% of the area of ​​the continent). The temperature there often drops to -50 degrees Celsius, and there is a polar night for four months a year.

Glacier in the Wright Valley. (Photo by Peter Doran | National Science Foundation):

This unearthly corner is dry thanks to the Transantarctic Mountains, which cover the Valleys from wedges penetrating from the south. continental ice. Dry Antarctic winds reaching speeds of up to 320 km/h (the most high speed winds on Earth), cause the evaporation of moisture. Thanks to this, the valleys are practically free of ice and snow for about 8 million years.

The heated descending airflow "absorbs" the cold, causing moisture to evaporate. That is why there has been no snow or rain in the Dry Valleys for so long.

View of the McMurdo Dry Valleys from space. (Photo by NASA):

It may seem that there is nothing alive in the Dry Valleys. However, it is not. There are reservoirs here, which, although they are covered with ice, algae grow in them and bacteria develop. In addition, amazing rock-dwelling bacteria have been found in the wetter parts of the Valley, as well as anaerobic bacteria whose metabolism is based on the processing of sulfur and iron.

One of the attractions of Antarctica is located in the Taylor Valley - which owes its appearance to the activity of anaerobic bacteria, whose metabolism is based on the processing of iron and sulfur. (Photo by Peter Rejcek):

rich in iron salty water emerges sporadically from a small crack in an icy waterfall. The source of water is a lake covered with 400 meters of ice, several kilometers away from the waterfall.

This lake was formed when dry valleys were flooded sea ​​water, and after the retreat of water and the onset of ice 4-1.5 million years ago, it turned out to be covered with a thick layer of ice. The salinity of the water in the lake is four times higher than that in the ocean, so the water does not freeze even at -10 degrees Celsius.

Camp at Blood Falls. (Photo by Mike Martoccia):

Of all the landscapes on Earth, the Dry Valleys in Antarctica are the most similar to those of Mars. (Photo by NASA):

It is interesting that they are close to those characteristic of the Dry Valleys, so NASA conducted a test of the Viking spacecraft intended for the study of the "red planet" in the Valleys.

This is the driest place on earth.

Many of us, answering the question of which territory on our planet is the driest, will answer "Sahara" without hesitation. Indeed, we all associate the African desert with heat, drought and the lack of normal living conditions for living beings. However, the Sahara is not the driest desert on Earth. Perhaps it chilean desert Attacks? And this answer is wrong, since the driest territory in the world is the Dry Valleys (Victoria Land, Antarctica).

Millennium without rain

The Dry Valleys have not had any precipitation for the past 2 million years. The area of ​​the territory reaches 8 thousand square meters. The Dry Valleys are under the powerful influence of Katabatic winds, which have a speed of 320 kilometers per hour.

Thanks to record speed, the winds evaporate every last drop of moisture, so there is not a single trace of water in the Dry Valleys.

Almost like Mars

The Dry Valleys have a climate typical of the planet Mars, which is why NASA is testing the Viking spacecraft here. Since 2004, the territory has been protected by law as a unique feature of the UNESCO organization.

This photo shows frozen salt lakes, in which there is not a single drop of water.

However, these lakes have the highest concentration on Earth.

Another miracle of the Dry Valley is the Bloody Falls, which really looks intimidating, and all thanks to the endolithic bacteria of photosynthesis. They live in relatively damp rocks. In the summer, during the melting of ice, bacteria migrate from the gorges to the surface of the rocks, and give it a blood-red hue.

As for animals, there are none in the Dry Valleys, because due to the lack of moisture, the conditions of this territory are considered unsuitable for life. The only living organisms on this part of the planet are some algae and bacteria.

There is a massive misconception on the internet that the driest place in the world is in Chile. In fact, the Atacama Desert is in second place behind the Dry Valleys in Antarctica. These places have not seen precipitation for two million years - this is the driest desert on Earth

Such a climate is ideal for geological and other research. Dry valleys are classified as especially valuable protected areas. Dry valleys so close to natural conditions Mars that NASA is testing the Viking landers there. Here is a NASA shot of the valley:

Despite the fact that the desert region is home to the most long river Antarctica - Onyx and Lake Vida, Dry Valleys - the driest desert on Earth. The map shows that the desert is divided by ridges into several separate valleys:

The frozen lakes of the Dry Valley are the saltiest lakes in the world, with a salinity higher than that of Dead Sea. The saltiest of the lakes - Don Juan Pond

Endolithic photosynthetic bacteria have been found in the desert, protected from dry air by relatively damp rocks. During the summer ice melt, bacteria come out. Since their metabolism is based on iron and sulfur, the ice around them turns red. The place where these bacteria came out was called Bloody Falls.

Despite the absence of ice and snow, the living world here is poorer than other areas of the ice continent. Animals can't survive in such a dry place

Since 2004, this place has been protected by law. UNESCO recognized the uniqueness of the Dry Valleys