Life on Mars: Fieldwork in the Atacama Desert

Originally posted on an older version of this blog

No... naturally I am not actually on Mars, but it is the closest thing I have ever seen in photos to what Northern Chile looks like. There are essentially no plants, since the last rain was pretty much the less than an inch they got in 1991. Lack of plants also means a lack of animals, which is nice for camping, but makes for an extremely remote landscape. I have included a few pictures, mostly pretty/touristy ones, though I have about 600 of cracks in the ground for those who are actually interested in my research. It is a very brief tour, since we are only in town for the night and heading out for another week, but I thought I would share while I had the chance.

This was a nice sunrise... though the coastal fog that surrounds us every night had not quite gone.... it is the giant mass of white in the foreground... this is from one of our higher campsites.

This is that campsite from above, you can see it in the bottom right hand corner. This also shows a bit why it feels like mars.

A nice view from my tent in the morning.

A beach along the coast where we ate lunch one day.

A tree full of vultures at an abandoned nitrate mine where we camped.

The fog pulling back from a peak where we camped north of Iquique.

Desert lizard... just add water.

Geomorphologist and soil scientist, hard at work.

Jason standing in a crack ( I had to include a photo of at least one)

Me in front of a giant listric normal fault on the Mejillones peninsula.

Pretty sea arch near Antofagasta.

Rio Loa canyon.

Siphoning gas into our truck on a 30 degree morning.

Ok... whirlwind over. Until next time.

Originally posted on an older version of this blog on June 27, 2008