Valle de la Luna (Valley of the Moon) is located 13 kilometers west of San Pedro de Atacama, in the north of Chile in the Cordillera de la Sal, in the Atacama Desert.
Valle de la Luna is a surprising geological spectacle of great beauty located at 2,550 meters above sea level, formed 22 million years ago, when formations and folds of layers of horizontal sediments of an old salar originated, which converged horizontally due to constant movements and folds of the crust land. On these folds were deposited fractions of rocks and ashes due to the volcanic activity of yesteryear.
Today it is constituted by sedimentary rocks with intercalations of salt, gypsum, chlorate, borate, and clay that appear. The wind and the action of other atmospheric agents have carved sculptural forms with sharp ridges, mounds, and hollows that transform it into an extraordinary landscape, unique in our country. The absence of animal and plant life, and the lack of humidity, make it the most inhospitable corner of the earth.
Valle de la Luna has various stone and sand formations which have been carved by wind and water. It has an impressive range of colors and texture, looking somewhat similar to the surface of the Moon. There are also dry lakes where the salt composition makes a white covering layer of the area. It presents diverse saline outcrops which appear like man-made sculptures. There are also a great variety of caverns. When the sun sinks it defines the landscape while the wind blows among the rocks and the sky passes from pink color to purple and finally black.
Valle de la Luna is a part of the Reserva Nacional Los Flamencos and was declared a Nature Sanctuary in 1982 for its natural environment and strange lunar landscape, from which its name is derived. The Atacama Desert is also considered one of the driest places on earth, as some areas have not received a single drop of rain in hundreds of years. A prototype for a Mars rover was tested there by scientists because of the valley’s dry and forbidding terrains.
According to the Internet
