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First Major Rain in Centuries Triggers Wave of Death in Earth's Driest Desert

posted by mrpg on Sunday November 18 2018, @09:53AM   
from the el-agua-es-muerte dept.

upstart writes:

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

First Major Rain in Centuries Triggers Wave of Death in Earth's Driest Desert

After not experiencing any meaningful amounts of precipitation for at least 500 years, Chile’s Atacama Desert is finally getting some rain. Quite unexpectedly, however, these rains—instead of fostering life—are doing the exact opposite.

[...] The unprecedented rains, the authors say, are the result of changing climatic conditions over the Pacific Ocean. An extensive “mass of clouds” came to the desert from the Pacific Ocean—an “unprecedented phenomenon,” the researchers say, that occurred twice in three years.

The resulting precipitation resulted in the widespread extinction of many native microbial species. The local extinction rate, according to the new study, reached as high as 85 percent in the hardest-hit places. Extremophile organisms, accustomed to arid conditions, were unable to cope with the influx of water.

“The hyperdry soils before the rains were inhabited by up to 16 different, ancient microbe species,” said Alberto G. Fairén, an astrobiologist at Cornell and a co-author of the new study, in a statement. “After it rained, there were only two to four microbe species found in the lagoons,” said Fairen, who is also a researcher with the Centro de Astrobiología, Madrid. “The extinction event was massive.”

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Original Submission

• self-interest (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 18 2018, @05:41PM

  by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 18 2018, @05:41PM (#763559)

  I wonder if the rains will have any effect on the local Lithium mining/extraction? http://www.lithiummine.com/lithium-mining-in-chile [lithiummine.com]

  The barren lands of Salar de Atacama, a dried bed of the ancient Chilean lake 700 miles north of Santiago is one of the driest places on Earth. Nothing ever grows here. It is a wasteland laid out with sparkling salt-encrusted rocks that resemble cow pies. Annual rainfall on the salar (from Spanish - "salt lake") rarely tops a few millimetres. High altitude of 1.4 miles above sea level combined with cloudless skies incapable of reflecting the punishing rays of solar radiation may damage exposed skin in minutes.

  Humans would keep clear of the Salar de Atacama was it not for the precious brine that lays 130 feet below lake's surface. The brine looks like slushy, dirt-stained snow when first pumped from the ground. But when the water in the brine slowly evaporates when left under the desert sun, it leaves behind a yellowy mineral bath that could be mistaken for olive oil.

  This yellow greasy solution produces the substance that makes modern life possible: lithium. The lightest of all metals, lithium is the key ingredient in the rechargeable batteries. The ingredient that is in high demand to keep up with the technological evolution, as the battery industry doubled its consumption of lithium over the last few years. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, this single ancient lake bed contains 27% of the world's reserve base of the metal. Chile may be called "the Saudi Arabia of lithium".

     

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