Chile's Atacama Desert (one of the driest places on Earth, stretching across northern Chile) is experiencing a dramatic mass flowering after rainfall linked to the current El Niño climate cycle exceeded 180 millimetres in some areas — levels never previously recorded, according to César Pizarro of Chile's National Forestry Corporation (Conaf). Seeds and bulbs from around 200 plant species, which can lie dormant for years beneath the desert soil, have germinated en masse, carpeting some 15,000 hectares in violet and white blossoms in a phenomenon locally known as the "flowering desert." The spectacle, expected to peak in October, has drawn large numbers of visitors, though the same exceptional rains also caused severe damage across Chile in July, killing at least 13 people and destroying or heavily damaging around 4,000 homes.