Driest Fierce Earth


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We've journeyed 6,000 miles to the country of Chile.

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This is the Atacama Desert - the driest place in the world.

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Parts of this barren land have never recorded rain.

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Human life needs water to survive, so we're in for a tough ride.

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We're heading into the wilderness

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to find out the secrets of this bone-dry desert.

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Come with us on a journey through this, the world's driest place.

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And this is what you'll see.

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I'll take to the sky and then fall through the air to reveal

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why the rain never makes it here.

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We'll race one of Chile's toughest men

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across this dangerous, barren land.

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And I'll find out why the world's driest place,

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is the perfect place to get close to the stars.

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What happens when the ground shakes,

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the seas rise up and the air tears itself apart?

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The Fierce Earth team move in,

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taking on the most powerful forces on the planet.

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Get ready for Fierce Earth - the Earth and how to survive it.

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I'm standing right in the middle of the Atacama Desert,

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a bone-dry, barren strip of land

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that runs right through the country of Chile.

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Chile sits on the Pacific coast

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and its neighbours are countries like Argentina, Bolivia and Peru

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with their huge rainforests and epic rivers.

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It's very different here.

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All deserts lack moisture, but the Atacama takes it to another level.

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Nothing survives here - it's more like Mars than the planet Earth.

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So why is it so dry here?

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That's a complicated one. There's three main rain-stopping forces

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that have kept water away and have turned this into an empty desert.

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Three Fierce Earth heads are always better than one,

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and Clare, Leo and I are all going to work on this.

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We'll identify the three forces

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that stop moisture from reaching the ground here.

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And to do that, we're diving deep and flying high.

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Wish me luck. I'm boarding this bad boy and taking to the skies.

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It's time to find out the details behind rain blocker number one.

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We're up at 3,000 metres.

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Over there to the east are the mighty Andes Mountains.

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If you go over the top of the Andes,

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you're in a totally different land to the bone-dry Atacama.

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It's green and lush.

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The clouds that carry the rain across South America

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hit those mountains, they're like a barrier,

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and the rain empties from those clouds.

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The Andes shut the door on the rain that this part of the world

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so desperately needs. And that is Dry Fact number one.

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Dry Fact one - the Andes Mountains block rain from the east.

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Dry Fact number two.

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The second thing that keep the rain clouds away from the Atacama Desert.

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To find out all about it, I'm heading out to sea -

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the Pacific Ocean.

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It's incredible to think that the Atacama Desert is just there

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and it's devoid of life.

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But, here, along the coast, it's teeming with wildlife.

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But it's unusual to have a desert so close to the ocean.

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This is what normally happens along the coastline.

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The sun beats down and heats the ocean.

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Water evaporates up into the sky and forms clouds.

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The water then falls on to the land as rain as it cools.

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But that does not happen here. And the reason why?

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Well, I'm going to take a dip to find out.

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This is weather science in action. Let's go.

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Oh! It's absolutely freezing!

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What a shock to my body!

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I've got a dive watch here, let me have a look at the temperature.

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I can't believe it. 13 degrees Celsius!

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You'd expect this part of the Pacific Ocean to be much warmer.

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But the water I'm swimming in now

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has flowed all the way from the Antarctic,

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up along the coast of South America.

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This huge stream of cold water has a special name,

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it's called the Humboldt current.

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And it's the reason why

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this water is so chilly.

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And it's also the reason why the Atacama stays so dry.

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This is what happens. Because the water is so cold,

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there's little evaporation from the sea's surface.

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And because of that, there's not enough water vapour to form clouds.

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Without rain clouds, there's no rain.

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And that's the reason why the Atacama Desert is so dry.

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That is rain blocker number two.

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Dry Fact two - the cold ocean and little evaporation

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means there's no rain from the west.

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Here's the third and final rain blocker

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that keeps the Atacama so dry.

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It's because of the air that flows over the land here.

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1,000 miles to the north of here is a line called the equator,

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which runs around the middle of our planet.

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The sun beats down there with a huge amount of energy

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and that warms the air, lifting it up and sending it in this direction.

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Then, like a hot-air balloon without hot air, it starts to fall,

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just like I'm about to!

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After the hot air has moved away from the equator,

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it falls back to Earth - just like me!

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As the air falls towards the ground, it actually warms up

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and any moisture that's in the air just dries out.

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No moisture means no rain, and no rain means desert.

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This desert below me is the driest in the world.

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That was brilliant fun!

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And that is the third reason

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the Atacama Desert is the driest place in the world.

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So here are the three forces

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that keep water away from the planet's driest place.

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Only small amounts of water

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evaporate from the cold Pacific Ocean in the west.

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The massive Andes Mountains stop rain from the east.

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And falling air from the equator in the north

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is the final bolt on the door.

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So that's why the Atacama is so dry.

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Now we're on a mission to find out what it's actually like here.

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Coming up, we'll meet the local people who've got a magic trick

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that pulls water from thin air,

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and we'll find out what it's like

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to try and cross the Atacama Desert on foot!

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So dry. I can hardly swallow.

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But first, I'm paying a special visit to Quillagua,

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the driest town in the driest place in the world.

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Let's see how they won that record.

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It's simple really. Quillagua is the driest town in the world

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because it almost never rains here.

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And it's this bit of kit that measures the rain. Or lack of it.

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Any rain that does come would come in here

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and gets collected at the bottom of this bin.

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But as I shake it, there's nothing in there.

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Except for a little bit of dust.

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They've received 15 millimetres of rain over the past 30 years.

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That's it. That's all the rain they've received.

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That's amazingly dry.

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That looks like a tiny amount of water to me.

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But how does it compare to somewhere it rains a lot,

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like London in the UK?

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Over the past 30 years,

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Quillagua has received only 15 millimetres of rain.

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In comparison to London, which has received over 11 metres of rain.

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How do people survive in such a dry environment?

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The tiny amount of rain that falls here

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has meant that some settlements have not survived.

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The place is littered with ghost towns.

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People used to call these places home,

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but the environment was so tough,

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they packed up and headed to parts of Chile that were easier to live in.

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How has Quillagua survived when life in these other towns dried up?

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I'm heading into town to find out.

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Quillagua is the only town for miles around.

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It was a busy little place back in the 1940s

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and was an important stopping point for trains travelling through Chile.

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Over 800 people lived here

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and Quillagua's tiny school had 120 kids in it.

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But, with so little water available,

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the town couldn't support that many people,

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and today Quillagua is a lot quieter.

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Look at this - there's only six kids in this whole school now

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and I've got a couple of questions for them.

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Do you know you live in the driest town in the world?

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-TRANSLATION:

-Yes.

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Have you ever seen rain before?

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No, I've never seen it rain in my life.

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How many times have you seen it rain?

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Just the once.

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'Imagine that - only seeing rain once in your lifetime!

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'One of the students, Marisol,

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'has taken some time out of school to teach me

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'about where the water comes from in a town where it hardly ever rains.

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'She told me how sometimes, she can turn the tap on at home

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'and there's just no water.'

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Is this is where you live?

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And when you turn the tap and no water comes out, what do you think?

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-TRANSLATION:

-I think it's a shame

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because a town that is already dry is getting drier.

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Where do they bring the water to, where does it go?

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Right there, in the blue tanks.

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Right there, in the blue tanks.

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Do you know how many times per week the water gets filled into the tanks?

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-Five times a week.

-Five times a week.

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So, as Marisol says, all of the town's water

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is stored in these tanks.

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But with no rain, where does it come from?

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Well, get this - it has to be brought in by truck.

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HORN TOOTS

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It's a 120-mile journey, twice a day, five times per week.

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And it's driven by this guy - Jose.

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You know, you take it for granted, water.

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You go to the tap, you turn on the water - bam, water's there.

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His job is so important because he's bringing water to the town.

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If it wasn't for him doing that,

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there's no way this town could survive.

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This literally is the lifeline right here of Quillagua.

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Imagine living somewhere that doesn't have water

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other than when it's brought like this.

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Pipes from the tanks run into the houses below

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where people need it for washing, cooking and, of course, drinking.

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Quillagua's people are careful with the small amount of water they get.

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Because of that and, of course, this truck,

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the driest settlement in the world

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hasn't turned into an abandoned ghost town.

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Job done.

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Jose's off home and Quillagua's people have enough water

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until the truck's next visit in 12 hours' time.

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So that's what it takes to live in a place as dry as the Atacama,

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but what is it like to travel across this barren land?

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Well, Leo's about to find out,

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because I've got a challenge for him -

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a 15km trek across one of the most rugged stretches

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of the Atacama Desert.

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Nasty.

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You don't just have to beat the desert,

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you have to beat that guy over there.

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Antonio is in one of the toughest regiments in the Chilean army.

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He knows how to survive out here for weeks without any help.

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Today is his day off, but he's ready to take Leo on.

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-That doesn't sound like fun.

-SHE LAUGHS

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Here are your supplies.

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Let's have a look. A map.

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One litre of water.

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GPS.

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And a compass.

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Here is your competitor. This is Antonio.

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'We're almost ready to go, but as the Atacama new boy,

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'Leo gets a head start and some advice on the best route.'

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When you sweat in a place like this, the sweat evaporates really quickly.

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You need more water.

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Leo only has one litre for 15km.

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As a reward, there's some Fierce Earth drinks at the finish line,

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and in case of an emergency there's a paramedic on standby.

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OK. I've got a 15-minute head start, better make it count.

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15km across the driest land in the world.

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That's like walking the length of 160 football pitches.

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I've only travelled 300 metres

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but I can already see how tough this is going to be.

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Normally, you'd need about 10 litres of water to travel this far.

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I've got just one to get me to the end,

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and now Antonio is in hot pursuit.

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Antonio knows this place like the back of his hand,

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but I'm only 45 minutes into the trek

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and I'm really struggling to navigate.

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There's so few identifying landmarks,

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like hills or woods or rivers...

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..so to figure out where you are you have to count your paces

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and know how many paces it takes to do a kilometre.

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I've counted my paces out, but I'm still getting lost.

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And if I really were to lose my way in this desert

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and I only had one litre of water,

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I probably wouldn't survive for more than 24 hours.

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That's how quickly things can become life-threatening here.

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OK, I wonder how Antonio is doing.

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I'm back on track, but that is one fast Chilean.

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Travelling at over 5 kmph, he's gaining on me.

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1,000 metres to Leo. I need catch.

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The next level to the speed I catch very fast to Leo. Bye-bye.

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Antonio is trained in wilderness survival

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and he's eating the ground up.

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What could I, and you, learn from him about staying alive out here?

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Here's Antonio's Atacama survival guide.

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For a start, he wouldn't be walking now.

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We've set this test up during the day so you can see what's going on.

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But the best time to march is at night.

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It's much cooler and you don't lose as much liquid from sweating.

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The second survival tip is to carry all the water you need.

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You'll never find a natural water source

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in the driest place in the world.

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On a training mission, Antonio would be carrying

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almost half his body weight in water!

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That's about 40 litres!

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The final survival tip would be to walk with a hat on

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and your mouth shut.

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Breathing through your nose loses less water,

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and exposing your head makes your body work hard to stay cool.

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Back to the race, and I've travelled 11km in three hours.

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But I've run out of water. That's bad news

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and means I've got just an hour before serious dehydration

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and heat exhaustion set in.

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OK. Three-and-a-half kilometres to go. I've run out of water.

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My throat's quite tight.

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It's hard to swallow.

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I feel pretty rough. Ohh...

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'After three-and-a-half hours, the torture's almost over.

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'I can see the finish line.'

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But here comes Antonio.

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He's not far ahead. I've got to catch him.

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400 metres to go. One last push!

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15km across the driest place on the planet.

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It was a tough challenge, but they are almost neck and neck.

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Come on, Leo.

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Come on, Leo!

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Come on, Leo! Brilliant!

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It's neck and neck!

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Pipped at the post by Antonio.

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Antonio, you won!

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Time to rehydrate and get checked out by the paramedic.

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It's so dry out here.

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There's no water. You need water to survive.

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Everything does. It's a hostile place.

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Can we go home now?

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As we've seen, finding water out here is nearly impossible,

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but in another part of the Atacama

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a group of people have found a way to do it.

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This area gets barely any rain.

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But what it gets a lot of is this - fog.

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The fog comes from the Pacific Ocean and drifts inland.

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I've got something here to show you how fog

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is formed in the first place.

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When you think of the word "desert", you think of a hot place,

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but the Atacama at night is cold,

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as is the air around the coast.

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So, if the water here represents the air warmed by the Pacific Ocean,

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and then this ice represents the cold air at night

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and during the early morning,

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see what happens as these two interact.

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It starts evaporating and then condensating.

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And that's exactly what happens out to sea -

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the cold air and hot air interact and condense.

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And there you have it - fog.

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The only trouble is the fog hardly ever falls as rain.

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It rolls over the land and, when the sun shines, it disappears again.

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But, believe it or not,

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these nets can catch the water before it vanishes into thin air.

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The inspiration and design for the nets

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comes from moss on these cacti.

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You can see this moss captures the tiny little water particles

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and it feeds the whole plant.

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These nets are like massive versions of the cacti and moss.

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The fog climbs up the hillsides

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and then these huge nets catch the tiny little water droplets,

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and then the water droplets become bigger as these nets rub together.

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And then gravity takes over, the drops becomes heavier

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and fall into this pipe,

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and then roll down the mountainside into these big tanks.

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We're not talking about a few drops. either.

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These nets can catch about 500 litres a day!

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That would be enough water for you to take 43 baths every week!

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It's really clever, yet so simple.

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Pipes transport the water down into the valley,

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and once there

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it's used by people in the local town to grow these aloe vera plants.

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You can make a nice salad out of them

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and even use them in sun tan cream!

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Now, what I want to know is, we saw some water from up there

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going through the pipes. Can you switch it on?

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-Si.

-Excellent.

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For the driest place on the planet,

0:21:490:21:52

it's a miracle, really, that this can happen.

0:21:520:21:54

Without this simple technology,

0:21:550:21:57

the locals could never grow these crops.

0:21:570:22:01

And there's enough water in those tanks

0:22:010:22:03

to make you 13,000 cups of tea!

0:22:030:22:05

So, should there be more fog-catchers like yourself?

0:22:070:22:10

-TRANSLATION:

-Definitely. The Atacama needs more fog-catchers.

0:22:120:22:16

We want to show other people how these nets work

0:22:160:22:18

and how they can change other people's lives.

0:22:180:22:21

This place is special. It shows it is possible to create life

0:22:220:22:27

in other parts of the dead and dry Atacama.

0:22:270:22:30

Let's hope it catches on.

0:22:300:22:32

People have cleverly tapped into an almost invisible

0:22:320:22:34

source of water in the driest place on the planet.

0:22:340:22:38

Look at this dry, empty place. It's almost like another planet.

0:22:400:22:44

But there is one thing about this barren land that is VERY special.

0:22:440:22:49

The air is so dry you hardly ever see any clouds,

0:22:510:22:55

and that's what makes the Atacama the best place in the world

0:22:550:22:58

to see the stars.

0:22:580:23:00

That's why, high on a mountain,

0:23:000:23:03

deep in the Atacama Desert,

0:23:030:23:05

you can find Paranal Observatory.

0:23:050:23:07

All of this special technology looks deep into space

0:23:090:23:13

and it's been brought to this remote area because it's so dry.

0:23:130:23:17

These are the most advanced telescopes in the world.

0:23:170:23:20

When it darkens, like a giant eye,

0:23:200:23:23

they're going to open up.

0:23:230:23:25

Telescopes are very important and these even have a great name - VLT.

0:23:260:23:31

Stands for "very large telescope".

0:23:310:23:34

And they allow us to look deeper

0:23:350:23:38

into the universe than anybody ever has.

0:23:380:23:40

Telescopes work by looking for the light that comes

0:23:410:23:44

from stars and planets in space.

0:23:440:23:46

To be able to see the stars and planets properly,

0:23:460:23:49

that light needs to be travelling in a straight line.

0:23:490:23:52

But the problem with having any moisture in the air

0:23:520:23:55

is that light is bent, which causes a distorted image.

0:23:550:23:58

I know all this sounds confusing,

0:23:580:24:00

but I'll show you what I'm talking about.

0:24:000:24:02

Look at this, a spoon in a glass. Looks pretty normal, doesn't it?

0:24:020:24:05

Watch what happens when I pour water inside.

0:24:050:24:08

Strange, isn't it? The spoon almost looks broken.

0:24:120:24:15

The light hitting the spoon is being bent, or refracted, by the water.

0:24:150:24:19

This happens anyway when light hits our atmosphere,

0:24:190:24:22

but the effect is reduced in the dry Atacama.

0:24:220:24:26

This is a great example of why

0:24:260:24:27

we don't want to have moisture in the atmosphere

0:24:270:24:30

and why the telescopes are here, where it's really dry.

0:24:300:24:34

Let's meet someone who uses the telescopes. This is Gabe.

0:24:350:24:39

He's an astronomer who loves the dry air

0:24:390:24:42

and clear skies here.

0:24:420:24:44

We're lucky to see him in the light

0:24:440:24:47

as he spends the long, dark Atacama nights exploring space.

0:24:470:24:51

Well, let me ask you,

0:24:510:24:53

having this view on top of the world,

0:24:530:24:55

do you feel like a space explorer sometimes up here?

0:24:550:24:58

It's very exciting.

0:24:580:24:59

At night, we're observing many different interesting things -

0:24:590:25:03

stars, very distant galaxies,

0:25:030:25:05

but just being here, you feel like you're on the surface of Mars.

0:25:050:25:08

You feel that while you're here

0:25:100:25:12

at the same time while you might be observing Mars through a telescope.

0:25:120:25:15

It does look like another world out there.

0:25:150:25:18

With the sun setting, it's time for Gabe

0:25:180:25:21

and an army of astronomers to start exploring the universe.

0:25:210:25:25

But first, the telescopes have got to open up,

0:25:270:25:31

and I've got a ring-side seat.

0:25:310:25:33

I've got to say, I'm starting to get butterflies.

0:25:330:25:36

I'm really anxious to see this.

0:25:360:25:37

Once open, these telescopes are so powerful

0:25:370:25:41

they will allow you to read a newspaper on the moon!

0:25:410:25:44

So now the doors are opening

0:25:440:25:46

and they're basically retracting, like this,

0:25:460:25:48

and it's going to get a view of that nice, dry sky.

0:25:480:25:52

So the telescope is completely set up and ready to go

0:25:540:25:57

for a long night of exploring outer space.

0:25:570:26:00

Working in the Atacama's super-dry environment,

0:26:020:26:05

these telescopes are four billion times more powerful

0:26:050:26:08

than the naked eye,

0:26:080:26:11

and they're used to discover planets and stars never seen before.

0:26:110:26:14

In a place like the UK, you can never see the stars so clearly.

0:26:140:26:19

Clouds would block the view of the telescopes

0:26:190:26:21

and moisture would blur the pictures of stars.

0:26:210:26:24

Now that it's dark out,

0:26:240:26:26

I can see why these are the clearest skies on Earth.

0:26:260:26:29

Just look at it - tens of thousands of stars twinkling in the sky.

0:26:290:26:32

It's beautiful.

0:26:320:26:33

The bright streak you can see in the sky is the Milky Way,

0:26:330:26:37

and the light from the stars has travelled

0:26:370:26:39

thousands of light years across space.

0:26:390:26:42

The astronomers may one day discover a planet just like Earth,

0:26:420:26:46

and who knows?

0:26:460:26:48

When we're looking at them,

0:26:480:26:49

they may be looking right back at us.

0:26:490:26:52

Our journey through the world's driest place is now complete,

0:26:570:27:00

and it's been epic.

0:27:000:27:02

We found out about the powerful forces of cold ocean currents,

0:27:030:27:07

high mountain barriers and warm, falling air that block the rain out.

0:27:070:27:12

I learnt the survival skills you need

0:27:130:27:16

to travel across the desert on foot.

0:27:160:27:18

And Mike saw how the world's most powerful telescopes

0:27:200:27:23

look through the clearest and driest skies on Earth.

0:27:230:27:26

Next time on Fierce Earth - get ready for the heavens to open.

0:27:260:27:33

It's pouring it down!

0:27:330:27:35

Because we're on a soaking journey

0:27:350:27:38

to the rainiest place on the planet.

0:27:380:27:41

-It's going to be wet.

-And wild.

0:27:410:27:43

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