Altiplano

The Altiplano , which means “  Flat of altitude   ” in Spanish, is the highest area inhabited after the plate of the Tibet.

Physical geography

Located in the broadest zone of the Andes cordillera, in South America between 14th and the 27th degree of southern latitude, it extends on four countries, the Argentine, the Bolivia, the Peru and the Chile. The major part of Altiplano is in Bolivia. Average altitude is of 3.300 meters, therefore slightly less less high than Tibet. Altiplano is surrounded of the mountainous peaks of the active volcanos in the west, and the desert of Atacama, the most arid sector in the world, south-west.

Geology

At the end of the time Pleistocene, Altiplano was covered with a vast lake, the Ballivián . Today, this stretch of water is at the origin of the Lac Titicaca and the Lac Poopó. The Salar de Uyuni as well as the Salar de Coipasa are two large lakes of salt formed at the time of the draining of Ballivián.

This area is very rich in mineral resources:

  • Gold: first historically exploited raw material,
  • Money: Cerro Rico de Potosi is the largest money mine in the world. It is at the end of the exploitation,
  • Plomb
  • Zinc
  • Cuivre: the area of Atacama makes of Chile the first world producer
  • Lithium: Salar d' Uyuni
  • Borax

Climate

Generally, the climate varies expenses and semi-arid with arid, with average annual temperatures which can go from 3°C, near the Western mountainous chain, with 12°C, close to the lake Titicaca. Annual precipitations vary from 200 millimetres in south-west with more than 800 millimetres close to this same lake. However, during one day, the temperature can oscillate between 12 and 24°C, but it can also fall until -20°C. This temperature variation is especially perceptible in the south-western part of Altiplano, during July and June (southern winter). The rainy season begins in December and finishes in March. The remainder of the year, the climate tends to being dry, fresh, windy and sunny. Snow can fall between April and September, mainly in north, but this rare phenomenon arrives only one to five times per annum.

Principal cities

The main city of Altiplano is La Paz in Bolivia.

Mining cities:

History

The settlement of the altiplano is old 10.000 years. Shelters under rocks were found in the area of the Atacama, then less arid than today.

Strengthened sites and necropoles seem to indicate a trade of salt during the pre-incaïque period.

Right before the arrival of the Conquistador be, the area belonged to the empire INCA.

The Spaniards start to exploit the mineral richnesses of the altiplano about 1545, by melting the mining city of Potosí.

Since 1892, a railway connects the towns of Uyuni and Oruro to the Chilien port of Antofagasta.

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