Where is the only place on Earth similar to Mars, (from which) soil samples have been taken, to grow microorganisms back at the lab and nothing whatsoever grew,just like soil from planet Mars?

[This message was edited by mozart56 on 11-17-03 at 11:09 PM.]

Volcanic ash in Hawaii (and other places, perhaps?) has been used to simulate Martian soil. For some related reading, try

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1999/06/990615080147.htm

Thanx for the link Coldfuse, but I am looking for a different answer.The soil collected was placed with nutrient media at a lab. and showed no or very few bacterial colonies even after 20 days of incubation.

Chile's Atacama Desert

Yes ,that's the answer I was looking for .Thank you.

http://appl003.lsu.edu/unv002.nsf/0/fa2fb5036b3461ab86256dda00657160?OpenDocument

from GuinnessWorldRecords.com
For the period between 1964 and 2001, the average annual rainfall at the meteorological station in Quillagua, in the Atacama Desert, Chile, was just 0.5mm. This discovery was made during the making of the documentary series Going to Extremes, by Keo Films in 2001.

from National Geographic
"Stretching 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) from Peru's southern border into northern Chile, the Atacama Desert rises from a thin coastal shelf to the pampas—virtually lifeless plains that dip down to river gorges layered with mineral sediments from the Andes... At its center, a place climatologists call absolute desert, the Atacama is known as the driest place on Earth. There are sterile, intimidating stretches where rain has never been recorded, at least as long as humans have measured it."

The Atacama runs from from the border with Peru 600 miles along Chile's coast. Apparently, while parts of the Atacama have never seen rain since humans have been around to measure it, the dense fog that is sometimes present along the coastline.is responsible for almost all the moisture. The fog is caught on nets designed to trap the moisture as it condenses. More than a million people live in the Atacama.