Parts of the Atacama desert has no record of rain ever, but somehow more than 1 million people have managed to find a life in its dried up land. The communities of the Atacama desert used to have to import their water by truck, but now they have managed to make use of the type of precipitation they get a lot of - fog.
Fog and dew collection is an ancient practice. In the Atacama desert, stones were put so that condensation could trickle down the inside wall as water for the people to collect and use. The few communities in the Atacama desert make a living by mining minerals such as dolomite, quartz, gypsum, halite and limestone.Some farming is done in the desert’s river oases, but this supports only a few thousand traditional cultivators. Lemons are grown at Pica, and a variety of products are cultivated on the shores of the salt marshes at San Pedro de Atacama.
It is mosty populated with cities along the coast, but the most advanced pre-columbian societies have been found for a long time in interior areas, oases and valleys in Chile.
Fog and dew collection is an ancient practice. In the Atacama desert, stones were put so that condensation could trickle down the inside wall as water for the people to collect and use. The few communities in the Atacama desert make a living by mining minerals such as dolomite, quartz, gypsum, halite and limestone.Some farming is done in the desert’s river oases, but this supports only a few thousand traditional cultivators. Lemons are grown at Pica, and a variety of products are cultivated on the shores of the salt marshes at San Pedro de Atacama.
It is mosty populated with cities along the coast, but the most advanced pre-columbian societies have been found for a long time in interior areas, oases and valleys in Chile.