The 9 Most Extreme Deserts in the World

3. Patagonian Desert

South America has a reputation for tropical rainforests, but the truth is that the topography of the continent is highly varied, from the wetlands of the Amazon to the peaks of the Andes to the arid region of the Atacama. But the Atacama isn’t the only desert in South America—not by a long stretch. The Patagonian Desert, near the southern tip of the continent, is actually the largest South American desert and the seventh-largest in the world. Located primarily in Argentina, with small portions in Chile, the Patagonian Desert forms 673,000 km (260,000 miles) of the region of Patagonia. Like the Atacama, this desert lies in the rainshadow of the Andes. The weather, however, is colder: the temperature averages just 3°C and rarely exceeds 12°C. Winter lasts for 7 months of the year and even in summer, frost is common.

2. Atacama Desert

I’ve written a bit about the Atacama Desert before, but this expanse in northern Chile is well-known for a number of reasons. First and foremost, the Atacama is known as the driest place on the planet. Straddling the area between 2 mountain ranges, the Andes and the Chilean Coastal mountains, the Atacama exists in a double-rain shadow, which excludes it from getting moisture from either the Pacific or Atlantic Oceans. It’s estimated that the Atacama has experienced this aridity for at least 3 million years (if not even longer), making it the oldest continuously dry area on earth. Data suggest that, from 1590 to 1971, the Atacama experienced no significant rainfall. These days, annual rainfall is about 15 mm (0.6 inches). The Atacama has long been compared to Mars; film and television producers film Martian settings in the desert and NASA researchers have used the Atacama as a test location.

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