The
Atacama Desert is a
plateau in
South America, covering a strip of land on the
Pacific coast, west of the
Andes mountains. It is the driest non-polar
desert in the world. According to estimates the Atacama Desert proper occupies , or if the barren lower slopes of the Andes are included. Most of the desert is composed of stony terrain,
salt lakes (
salares),
sand, and felsic lava that flows towards the Andes.