Welcome to Zalanthas, Chile

[James de Monet]

Holy balls.  I was just reading Testing's little brother's blog.  He's studying abroad in Chile, and was visiting the Atacama desert, which is the driest in the world.  I was intrigued by the picture he posted and looked up a few more online.  Welcome home.

Salt Flats:
http://www.uni-magdeburg.de/abp/pics/atacama.jpg

Scrub Plains:
http://www.soypoeta.com/imagenes/especiales/sudamerica/04-01-13-atacama/hpim2255.jpg

Nomad:
http://asihablabajosefk.blogspirit.com/images/medium_desiertodesolado600.jpg

The North Road:
http://www.bylandwaterandair.com/images/peru/approaching_san_pedro_de_atacama.jpg

A Sandstone Statue:
http://www.tiwy.com/pais/chile/atacama/1.jpg

Lirathu and a Mekillot Dune:
http://www.patagonia-chile.info/images/atacama/19.jpg

I don't even know:
http://i1.trekearth.com/photos/29095/20040116_salar_atacama_09.jpg

Even the Red Sky:
http://asihablabajosefk.blogspirit.com/images/medium_atardecer-desierto-atacama.jpg

[mattrious]

Awesome pictures.

- Matt.

[Akoto]

Very cool pictures. Thanks for sharing.

[Bluefae]

Very cool pictures. Thanks for sharing.

Hear, hear!

[Cyrian20]

Holy balls.  I was just reading Testing's little brother's blog.  He's studying abroad in Chile, and was visiting the Atacama desert, which is the driest in the world.  I was intrigued by the picture he posted and looked up a few more online.  Welcome home.

You actually just gave me all sorts of ideas, thanks for the digging.

[Majikal]

Very cool pics.

[Vessol]

The last one rocks, more convincing than the other photos.

[Synthesis]

The picture of a "scrub plain" is probably more appropriately labeled as another type of salt flat.  The plants growing on it are probably some species of saltbush (genus Atriplex), a group of plants that can excrete through their leaves the excess salt that they absorb from the soil.  On most salt flats, this adaptation gives them nearly exclusive access, and they're often found in pure stands.

http://helios.bto.ed.ac.uk/bto/desertecology/saltbush.htm#top

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playa

[Rairen]

Oh... wow...  :shock:

[Synthesis]

Additionally, the scrub plain picture looks somewhat suspect, possibly a faux background.  It's pure speculation on my part, but I'll explain below, of course.

Generally, on the gradual slope up to the peaks of the local hills/mountains, you'll see a gradient of different plants, as most desert plant species are highly specialized to very specific locations within the biome, and are dominant only in the area that they're specifically adapted to.

In the Mojave Desert, for example, you'll see the Desert Saltbush out on the playa (flat area between hills), and the Creosote Bush (a much larger and greener organism) dominating the bajada (the gentle slop up to the peaks).  In the picture above, it looks like the same species is dominating the entire range, from flats to peaks, which is a little unusual, because abiotic factors (soil composition, temperature, wind) usually vary quite widely between different locations along the gradient.  Again, desert organisms tend to be highly specialized to a particular set of these factors.

Of course, without better resolution, there's no way to tell exactly what kind of plants those are in the background.  They could be another species that simply has remarkably similar coloration.  Also, the soil composition could be uniformly alkaline in the area where the picture was taken...or it could be experiencing such a severe drought that even the hardiest of green plants have withered and died.