De la Sancha realized the rain shadow could explain why there was more food on the western side of the Andes–and the mice there were bigger. He said: "That same day, I went home and wrote to Pablo.

Last week, astronomers stationed at the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) Observatory in northern Chile ...

The rain shadow effect is a product of the way that water vapor travels over mountain ranges. The air over the ocean picks up water vapor, and as the ocean naturally warms, this water vapor rises.

The result is that the western side of the central Andes is a flat dry slope, while the eastern side is verdant and hilly – similar to central Switzerland’s Napf region. Fritz Schlunegger of ...

Andes reach for the rain, ... To the east is the Bolivian Jungas region, which annually gets up to 3,000 mm of rain fall per square metre. This contrast leads to different rates of erosion.