Location: Atacama
Alt. Vallee de la Luna
Age: 23 million years
Moon Valley or Valley of the Moon is an area in Atacama desert, the driest place on Earth. It is famous in Chile and all of the World for its alien landscapes and beautiful night sky. In 1982 Moon Valley was declared a nature sanctuary and is part of the Los Flamencos national reserve. It is is managed by Conaf and is accessible from San Pedro de Atacama. Along with the so-called Valle de la Muerte, this place is unique within the environment surrounding the Orbate mountain range at 2,500 meters above sea level. Moon Valley is a relatively large depression of 440 km² of the so-called Cordillera de la Sal in the Salar de Atacama surrounded by crests of 500 m elevation. Moon Valley is bounded on the west side by the mountain range of Domeyko, on its side east by Toconao and Peine on the south side.
Recent geological studies indicate that there was
a large perimeter inland lake or sea in the El Tambo sector between
Toconao and Peine at the end of the Tertiary Era formed by the
hydrographic basin of the Licancabur volcano whose alluvial trawls
and debris deposits formed the base of the Cordillera de the Salt
which were deposited from a tectonic fault of the Domeyko Range,
which is the basis of such a peculiar landscape. It consists of a
series of transverse valleys and elevated outcrops in the northwest
direction in the form of crests of layers of limolite, gypsum, and
salt (sodium chloride), clay and sand forming sedimentary rocks of
Paleozoic origin.
characteristics
It was modeled over
millennia by river and wind erosion, which have carved its soil in
forms such as: ridges with points, hollows, mounds of gray and ocher
colors, which give it that characteristic lunar appearance.
The Valley of the Moon is a site that is characterized by the
abruptness of the scenic break, the scenic beauty of its earthly
colors, the absolute silence and the shortage of humidity, flora and
fauna, being only some specimens of Fabian's lizard.
Weather
The climate is high desert, with a great thermal oscillation between
day and night, approximately 18 ° C.