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Atacama Desert (Chile)

Blocked between the ocean trench and the Andes mountain range, the Atacama Desert is known to be one of the driest regions on Earth.

Certain areas can in fact be completely deprived of precipitation for more than 50 years.

This natural barrier is made up of active volcanoes reaching 6,000 meters, surrounded by turquoise lagoons, geysers and deep valleys.

 The Atacama Desert is renowned for its starry nights due to its location in the intertropical zone, combining extreme drought, altitude and very little light pollution.

Several international astronomical observatories have been established in this “extraterrestrial” desert where NASA tested small vehicles before they went to explore Mars.

The four-wheeled robot called Zoë found colonies of bacteria and lichens on two distinct sites in this desert, which nevertheless has the lowest density of organic activity on Earth.

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*Photo by Naxsquire.

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Mount Roraima (Venezuela)

Mount Roraima is a mountain in South America shared between Brazil, Guyana and Venezuela.

Discovered and explored late in the 19th century, Mount Roraima was not climbed until 1884 by a British expedition.

An account of one of these expeditions largely inspired Arthur Conan Doyle to write his adventure novel The Lost World in 1912.

Its highlight is the Maverick Stone. Inside the plateau there are numerous caves and chasms.

The watercourses which run through the plateau and which do not escape directly in the form of waterfalls end up disappearing into the rock through the network of caves

This water which flows from Mount Roraima in the form of waterfalls, such as Salto Roraima, or underground gives rise to numerous streams at its feet, some temporary, others permanent.

To the east of the mountain is the source of the Rio Cotingo, a river flowing into Brazil and a sub-tributary of the Amazon.

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*Photo by Paolo Costa Baldi.

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Torres del Paine National Park (Chile)

Torres del Paine National Park is a national park in Chile located between the Andes mountain range and the Patagonian steppe.

Between 3.5 million years ago and 14,000 years ago, glaciations shaped the landscape to remove the upper layers of rock and give the park its current appearance.

Covering an area of ​​181,414 hectares, its main function is the conservation of landscapes, ecosystems, species and genetic diversity of the Paine massif.

Its surface is characterized by its landscape heterogeneity, where mountains, glaciers, valleys, ponds and large lakes converge.

It takes its name from three emblematic granite formations of the del Paine massif: the Torres (Towers) del Paine.

12 million years ago, in the Miocene, the northward movement of the boundary between the Antarctic plate and the Nazca plate caused the intrusion of a 10 km by 20 km laccolith with a thickness of 2,000 mr.

This intrusion created the heart of the Paine massif. The territory also has some small, older intrusions dating from 29 million years ago.

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*Photo by John Spooner.

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Perito Moreno Glacier (Argentina)

The Perito Moreno Glacier is a glacier in Argentina located in Los Glaciares National Park in the province of Santa Cruz.

With a surface area of ​​250 km2 and a length of 30 kilometers, it is one of the 48 glaciers fed by the southern Patagonian ice field, in the Andes, which Argentina shares with Chile.

Named in honor of the explorer Francisco Moreno who studied this region in the 19th century and contributed to discussions for the delimitation of the border with Chile.

Its height is 170 meters of which 74 meters are above ground, the rest being under the waters of Lake Argentino.

 It advances about two meters per day (700 meters per year). In some places its thickness reaches 700 meters.

It is located 78 kilometers from El Calafate, in Argentine Patagonia.

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*Photo by Luca Galuzzi.

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Hide brooms (Norway)

In Norway, it is adamantly believed that witches and evil spirits roam the night sky on Christmas Eve.

And what is a witch's favorite mode of transportation? A broomstick.

As a precaution, the Norwegians therefore hide all the brooms in their houses to prevent witches from getting their hands on them.

Sometimes people go further by firing a warning shot in the air to scare them away.

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Night of the radishes (Mexico)

If the Christmas holidays in France are often associated with an increased consumption of chocolates, this is not the case in the city of Oaxaca in Mexico.

Indeed, every December 23, La Noche de Rabanos ("The Night of the Radishes") is celebrated there, a festival during which traders and artisans sell radishes intricately carved to represent nativity scenes, fauna and local architecture, as well as other relevant representations.

The radish carvings are sold as Christmas centerpieces, and the creator of the best radish drawing wins a cash prize.

An unusual Christmas tradition, certainly, but guaranteed without a liver attack.

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