by The American Geosciences Institute Thursday, December 22, 2016
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The otherworldly landscape of this valley in a high arid desert in northern Chile was used by NASA to test a prototype of a Martian rover.
The valley is located in a nature reserve named for the flamingos that flock to the shallow waters of the salt flats to feed on plankton.
The closest village — the saintly name of which refers to the surrounding desert region — lies in Chile’s Antofagasta region and is built around an oasis. The nearest cordillera, named for its “salty” rocks, was formed by salt diapirism and repeated folding episodes that entrained evaporite deposits, which have been mined here for centuries.
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Answer: The otherworldly landscape of Valle de la Luna (Valley of the Moon), near the village of San Pedro Atacama in the Atacama Desert in Chile, was used by NASA to test a prototype of a Martian rover. The valley is located in Los Flamencos National Reserve, where flamingos flock to the salt flats' shallow waters to feed on plankton. Photo by Terri Cook & Lon Abbott.
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