Valle de la Luna (Chile)

This article is about the Chilean valley. For the Argentine valley, see Valle de la Luna (Argentina). For other uses, see Valle de la Luna (disambiguation).
Valle de la Luna Landscape.
Valle de la Luna, Salt mountain range
View of the Licancabur Volcano (5916 m) from the Valley of the Moon

El Valle de la Luna (Valley of the Moon) is located 13 kilometres (8 mi) west of San Pedro de Atacama, to the north of Chile in the Cordillera de la Sal, in the Atacama desert. It has various stone and sand formations which have been carved by wind and water. It has an impressive range of color and texture, looking somewhat similar to the surface of the moon. There are also dry lakes where the composition of salt makes a white covering layer of the area. It presents diverse saline outcrops which appear like man-made sculptures. There are also a great variety of caverns. Valle de la Luna is a part of the Reserva Nacional los Flamencos and was declared a Nature Sanctuary in 1982 for its great natural beauty and strange lunar landscape, from which its name is derived.[1] The valley is also considered one of the driest places on earth, as some areas have not received a single drop of rain in hundreds of years.[2] A prototype for a Mars rover was tested there by scientists because of the valley's dry and forbidding terrains.[3]

Valle de la Luna (Moon Valley)

References

  1. ↑ "iExplore Chile". iExplore. Retrieved 14 February 2010.
  2. ↑ "Natural Earth: Chile". Natural Earth. Retrieved 14 February 2010.
  3. ↑ "Chile Tourist Attractions". Internet Cafe. Retrieved 14 February 2010.

Coordinates: 22°54′40″S 68°19′23″W / 22.9112°S 68.32303°W / -22.9112; -68.32303


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