Name: Driest Place on Earth
Released: 2009-03-17

How the Earth Was Made

S1 · E6 — Driest Place on Earth

S1:E6 · Driest Place on Earth

Episodes

13 episodes in this season

San Andreas Fault

45 min

The Deepest Place on Earth

45 min

Krakatoa

45 min

Loch Ness

45 min

New York

45 min

Now Playing

Driest Place on Earth

45 min

Great Lakes

45 min

Yellowstone

45 min

Tsunami

45 min

E10

Asteroids

45 min

E11

Iceland

45 min

E12

Hawaii

45 min

E13

The Alps

45 min

How the Earth Was Made

TV Series

200945m7.3

Documentary

Now playing

Driest Place on Earth

Season 1 · Episode 6 · Mar 17, 2009

The Atacama desert is considered the driest place on Earth. Since human records of the area began, some places have never received rain. But the records don't stop there--the Atacama is also the oldest desert in the world, and recently it has been dated to an amazing 150 million years old. Other research shows that the surface of this desert is also incredibly ancient, with boulders lying there that have not moved for over 23 million years--more than 50 times longer than it's taken for our human species to evolve. The soil is so dry, it has been used as a test bed for the Mars rovers. And though the desert was once thought to be completely lifeless, strange bacteria discovered there have given scientists new hope that they might find life on the red planet. Atacama is also home to the largest copper mine in the world. Inspect the riddle of the Atacama and uncover how this extraordinarily dry landscape was created.

More details

How the Earth Was Made

TV Series

200945m7.3

Documentary

Now playing

Driest Place on Earth

Season 1 · Episode 6 · Mar 17, 2009

More details