Q 01/05

Radio dishes high in the Atacama were part of the planet-wide telescope network that in 2019 revealed the first image of what?

A) A neutron star

B) An exoplanet

C) A black hole

D) The Big Bang's afterglow

Answer · why

C) A black hole

A black hole showed up as a bright ring around a dark centre; eight radio telescopes from Spain to the South Pole worked as one Earth-sized telescope,...

Q 02/05

The desert runs along the Pacific coast of northern Chile in a strip roughly how long?

A) 1,600 km

B) 2,100 km

C) 2,600 km

D) 3,200 km

Answer · why

A) 1,600 km

It covers about 105,000 square kilometres, rising to 128,000 if the barren lower slopes of the Andes are counted.

Q 03/05

Which cold flow of Pacific water, moving north along the coast, reinforces the desert's extreme dryness?

A) The Benguela Current

B) The Humboldt Current

C) The California Current

D) The Agulhas Current

Answer · why

B) The Humboldt Current

The Humboldt Current chills the sea air, which then sits trapped under warmer air and cannot build rain clouds; the same cold upwelling feeds one of t...

Q 04/05

The Andes block moist air from the Amazon side, leaving the Atacama in what kind of sheltered zone?

A) A continental divide

B) A watershed

C) A dust bowl

D) A rain shadow

Answer · why

D) A rain shadow

A rain shadow forms where mountains force moist air to climb, cool and shed its rain on the windward slope, leaving almost none for the far side; a lo...

Q 05/05

Which climate event, every few years, warms the cold sea off the Atacama coast and can bring rare rain to the desert?

A) El Niño

B) La Niña

C) The monsoon

D) The polar vortex

Answer · why

A) El Niño

El Niño, 'the child', is said to have been named by fishermen for the Christ child, because the warm water tends to arrive around Christmas; it wrecks...