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Map of the Atacama Desert,Region II

  • Approximate area: 120,000 km2.

  • 500 km long, 330 km wide max.

  • Spanish, Quechua, Aymara languages

  • Copper mining is its main economic activity

  • Together with the First Region of Chile, it has some of the driest areas on the planet

  • It has the world's largest copper reserves

  • It has two of the world's largest observatories

  • It owns 8 of the 20 largest copper mines in the world

  • Chuquicamata was the world's largest copper mine between 1915 and 1991

  • Currently, the world's largest copper mine is located in this region: BHP Billiton's "Escondida" mine.

  • It has the longest river in Chile, the Loa River, at 4.40 km, whose watershed is the largest in the country.

  • It has 4 distinct geological zones from west to east: coast, intermediate, pre-Andean, and puna.

  • The driest areas on the planet are located in the intermediate zone of the Atacama Desert

  • There are areas in the intermediate zone where it hasn't rained for centuries.

  • It began to be inhabited from the north around 14,000 years ago

  • Off its coast lies the Atacama Trench or Peru-Chile Trench

  • Here one of the two living cultures of Chile developed, the Atacameños

  • Indigenous peoples: Lickanantay pre-Andean zone and Changos or Camanchacos on the coast

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Cross section at latitude 23°27'4.46"S

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 Loa River

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