Whose work first identified the rarity of rain in the Atacama Desert?

Alexander von Humboldt was among the first naturalists to describe the extraordinary dryness of South American deserts in a scientific way during his travels in the early 1800s. The Atacama Desert, stretching along northern Chile and southern Peru, is now known as one of the driest places on Earth, with some weather stations recording decades without measurable rainfall. Humboldt’s broader work helped establish how climate, altitude, and ocean currents shape deserts. Later researchers connected the Atacama’s aridity to the cold Humboldt Current and the rain shadow of the Andes.