Where are the Dry Valleys in Antarctica?
The McMurdo Dry Valleys are a row of largely snow-free valleys in Antarctica, located within Victoria Land west of McMurdo Sound. The Dry Valleys experience extremely low humidity and surrounding mountains prevent the flow of ice from nearby glaciers.
How are Dry Valleys formed in Antarctica?
It is formed during the summer from melt water which comes from the Wright Lower Glacier and flows inland along the Wright Valley for 28 kilometers (17 miles) until it reaches Lake Vanda. It flows away from the sea, its water never reaching the ocean.
How cold can it get in the Dry Valleys of Antarctica?
They’re bitter cold (temperatures have dropped to as low as –90 degrees Fahrenheit, or about –68° C). The air is extremely dry. Katabatic (high-speed) winds dip down over the ice at the edges of the Valleys, and rip through them at speeds as high as 200 miles (about 322 km) per hour.
Why are there lakes in McMurdo Dry Valleys?
Low temperatures mean that metabolic processes happen slowly, yet the high biomass means that stream cyanobacteria can play a role in controlling the flux of nutrients along stream channels, and ultimately into the lakes.
Where are the driest places on Earth?
Atacama Desert
The Atacama Desert in Chile, known as the driest place on Earth, is awash with color after a year’s worth of extreme rainfall.
Why does Antarctica have a few dry valleys not covered by ice?
The McMurdo Dry Valleys remain dry because the precipitation that falls as snow to the Antarctic Continent is blown away from this area by strong, dry, katabatic winds through the process of sublimation.
What are dry valleys called?
A dry valley may develop on many kinds of permeable rock, such as limestone and chalk, or sandy terrains that do not regularly sustain surface water flow. Other examples include the Alkham Valley near Dover, and the Hartley Bottom and Fawkham valleys near Dartford in north Kent.
Where is McMurdo Dry Valleys?
Antarctica
The McMurdo Dry Valleys are a row of valleys west of McMurdo Sound, Antarctica, so named because of their extremely low humidity and lack of snow and ice cover.
Is Antarctica the driest place in the world?
Antarctica is the driest continent; it is almost entirely desert. Very little snow or rain falls on the continent, but because it is so cold, the small amount of precipitation that does fall does not melt. About 70% of Earth’s fresh water is in the Antarctic ice cap.
Is McMurdo Dry Valleys the driest place on Earth?
Synopsis: The Atacama Desert of Chile and McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica are the driest deserts in the world. They are so dry and inhospitable that the same tools showing no life on Mars in the 1970’s also showed no life in both of these locations on Earth.
Is McMurdo Antarctica the driest place on Earth?
The McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antartica: Driest Place on Earth. Although the Atacama is the driest warm desert on Earth that fits the definition of a warm, rocky and sunny desert, there is one place on Earth which is even drier – The McMurdo Dry Valleys in Antarctica, the driest place on Earth.
What country has no rain?
The world’s lowest average yearly precipitation in 0.03″ (0.08 cm) during a 59-year period at Arica Chile. Lane notes that no rainfall has ever been recorded at Calama in the Atacama Desert, Chile.
