Fog desert

A fog desert is a type of desert where fog drip supplies most of the moisture needed by animal and plant life. Examples include the Atacama Desert of coastal Chile and Peru, the Baja California desert of Mexico, the Namib Desert in Namibia, the coastal fog desert of the Arabian Peninsula and a manmade instance inside Biosphere 2 in Arizona. Fog forms when warm humid air meets a cooler mountain or when desert air heated inland blows over a cold ocean current and condenses, mostly in the early morning or after sunset. In the Atacama, fog condenses against slopes to make lomas, fog oases with rich plant and animal life. Organisms such as the Stenocara beetle and the plant genus Welwitschia collect water from fog, and people in the Namib use fog harvesters modeled on such adaptations.