Chile regained control of all of the Atacama following the War of the Pacific which occurred from 1879 to 1884. Prior to this, Bolivia controlled the southern half of the desert. While Bolivia still laid claim to part of the territory, the Atacama was exploited by Chilean mining companies for its deposits of sodium nitrate, which was used as a fertilizer before the advent of synthetic nitrates. Following the post-World War I development of synthetic nitrates, the Atacama mining boom collapsed.
The Atacama covers approximately 70,000 square miles. It is 100 miles wide at some points and stretches 600 miles south from the Peruvian border. The desert sits at an average elevation of 2,000 feet and is flanked by the Andes to the east and the Pacific coastal mountains to the west. The desert remains a resource for copper and nitrates. Chile is currently the world's largest producer of sodium nitrate.
The Atacama is known for its desolate landscape and almost complete lack of vegetation. During the nitrate mining boom of the 1930s, communities were created in the desert, but these communities were largely abandoned when the boom collapsed. Populations do, however, still exist in villages along the coast and in traditional communities. Farmers in the north use drip irrigation systems to harvest water from aqueducts to grow crops, and new generations of Aymara and Atacama Indians use water from streams caused by melted snow.
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and NASA have used a robotic rover to study the most desolate parts of the Atacama in order to find life there. Microorganisms have indeed been found and scientists will study how these organisms survive in the harsh environment. The hope is to use these findings to determine what scientists should look for when searching for life on planets such as Mars.
