One Chilean Desert Faced Major Devastation After Its First Rainfall In Centuries

Publish date: 2024-05-07

As strange as it may sound, dry soil, especially desert soil, is worse at absorbing moisture than damp soil. This is due to a variety of factors, according to the University of California at Santa Barbara. For one, the composition of the soil can affect how quickly it absorbs water. Moreover, soil that contains more organic matter and plants absorbs water more quickly — and those things are more likely to be present in wetter, forested areas than in the desert. Finally, if soil gets dry enough it can get "hydrophobic," or water resistant, meaning it won't absorb water as easily.

For an example, just look at Arizona, a notoriously arid U.S. state. There, the soil can only absorb about a quarter of an inch of rain per storm, according to Arizona Central. That means even a relatively small amount of rain, like an inch, could cause a serious flood.

That's what happened in the Atacama in 2015, when rainfalls led to severe flooding. Even though only one or two inches of rain fell over the course of a day, according to Climate.gov, that was significantly more than the yearly average of 15 mm, or less than 0.6 inches (per Down to Earth). The ground simply couldn't absorb the water. Severe damage was done to many buildings, and tragically, 125 people went missing and 26 were confirmed dead, according to Floodlist.

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