After heavy rains in March and August, the Atacama Desert in Chile is now swimming under a sea of unprecedented pink floral beauty. The breathtaking land that usually stays parched by a scorching sun is considered one of the driest deserts on earth. Arica, Chile, in the northern Atacama, holds the record for the world’s longest dry spell. Not a droplet of rain fell upon this South American desert for over 14 years.
The malva (or mallow) flowers on the floor of the Atacama desert bloom every five to seven years, usually coinciding with El Nino. But they have been taking advantage of this year’s particularly rainy conditions, leading to the “most spectacular blossoming of the past 18 years.”
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Interesting but basically irrelevant. All deserts bloom when there is enough rain, even when it doesn’t rain for 14 years. A more significant discussion would be to examine the collapse of the South American anchovy fishery off the coast of chile and Peru, as well as that of the sardine fishery in CA and the NE Pacific.