Northern Chile and Andes Mountains seen from STS-61 Shuttle Endeavour

STS061-101-023 (8 Dec 1993) --- This color photograph is a spectacular, panoramic (southeastern view) shot that features the northern half of the country of Chile and the Andes Mountains of South America. The Atacama Desert, one of the driest regions on earth, is clearly visible along the northern Chilean coast. This desert extends from roughly Arica in the north to the city of Caldera in the south, a distance of six hundred miles. Some parts of this very arid region go for more than twenty years without measurable precipitation. It is an area of dramatic and abrupt elevation changes. For example, from the waters edge there is an escarpment of the coastal plateau that rises like an unbroken wall two or three thousand feet above the Pacific Ocean. From the coastal plateau, there is an even more dramatic increase in elevation -- from two thousand feet above sea level to an average elevation of thirteen thousand feet above sea level in the Bolivian Altiplano. This elevation change occurs within a one hundred to two hundred mile distance from the Pacific Ocean. The north-south trending spine of the Andes Mountains can be seen on this photograph. Several of the volcanic peaks in this mountain chain exceed 20,000 feet above sea level. Interspersed with these volcanic peaks, numerous dry lake beds (salars) can be seen as highly reflective surfaces. The largest of these salars (Salar de Uyuni) is visible at the edge of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). Offshore, the cold Peruvian current produces low stratus clouds that can be found along this coastline at certain times of the year. This is the same type of meteorological phenomena that is found along the southern California coast and the Skeleton coast of southwestern Africa.