The Salina of Laguna Verde is a complex of three small lakes ( lagunas in Spanish) and of three small salars or saltworks, laid out in North-South row within a basin endorrheic located in the Andes, in the province Argentine of Catamarca, in the west of the Département of Tinogasta, in edge of the border Chile enne.

Highest volcanos of the Earth

The basin or basin of Salina of Laguna Verde has this characteristic remarkable to be surrounded by seven of the twelve higher volcanos of planet, and with the center of an area which comprises some much more.

To north a high volcanic chain without name extends, which goes from is in west in the neighborhoods of the 27e degree of southern latitude, and extends on hardly 50 kilometers. It determines a portion of the border with the Chile, and includes/understands the majority of the giants of the Andes. Let us quote (of is in west) the Nevado Incahuasi (: 6610 m), the El Fraile, the volcano El Muerto (: 6488 m), the Nevados Ojos del Salado (: 6868 m), the volcano ATA (: 6501 m), the Nacimientos or Walter Penck I (: 6669 m) with more in the south the Cerro Bayo (: 6436 m), the Solo (: 6205 m), the Nevado Very Cruces (: 6749 m), and some others still.

Southern part, the basin is dominated by the imposing solid mass of the Monte Pissis, the most volcano of the world, credit in addition (: 6882 m) with a little more in the south quite as imposing Cerro Bonete (Bonete Chico) (: 6759 m), and Cerro Negro of Laguna Verde (: 5764 m). These tops determine the limit with the Argentinian province of Rioja.

In the west also, a series of tops form the Chilean border, of which the Puntiagudo there Llamas (: 5930 m) and the Los Patos (: 6239 m). The volcano Azufre or Copiapó (: 6052 m) near do not form part of it. It is completely in Chilean territory.

The basin of Salina of Laguna Verde

Salina of Laguna Verde is subdivided in six portions which are connected north in the south:

• the Laguna Norte (northern lake)
• the Salina Norte (northern saltworks), followed to the south by a vast sand zone.
• the Central Salina (central saltworks).
• the Laguna Verde Central (central green lagoon) or Laguna Verde itself, with the colors green-turquoise. It is followed of an isthmus, then of a new sandy desert.
• the Salina On (southern saltworks)
• Finally the Laguna Verde On or green Lagoon southern (of color in fact dark brown or caramel)

The unit proceeds on more or less forty kilometers. With about fifteen kilometers in the south-east of the southern green Lagoon, another small lake of mountain is, locked up in a endorrheic under-basin: the Laguna of los Aparejos .

The zone receives very few precipitations and in a very irregular way. The water of the lagoons comes primarily from the cast iron of the glaciers of the surrounding volcanos. Their level, therefore their extent is variable. It arrives, but seldom, that following precipitations abnormally high in the area, the sandy zones recover water.

The principal hosts of these places are the flamingos of the Andes.

Tourism - Sports of mountain

The uninhabited basin is very difficult access. Argentinian side, since Fiambalá or Tinogasta, by the trunk road 60 of strong good quality, only a track carries out to it, only frequentable in summer. Towards the Chile, the basin opens on the Región de Atacama by a small collar called Paso Tres Quebradas or Paso del Toro Muerto (: 4867 meters of altitude) deprived of way suitable for motor vehicles. The rarefaction of the air and the ambient cold due to altitude can cause faintnesses. Reserved with the amateurs of tourism of adventure and high mountain.

In spite of its remarkable attractions for the sports of mountain, forwardings of alpinism and the discovery, the area is largely under-equipped at the tourist level, worst being the absence of road to reach it and the inexistence of brought closer home bases. This is why the main part of forwardings on the frontier tops is done at the beginning of the Chilean slope of which a part constitutes the National park Nevado Tres Cruces.

See too

• the collar of the Paso of San Francisco

• the Department of Antofagasta of the Sierra

External bonds

• Photographs of various sectors of the basin of Salina of Laguna Verde

• Chart of the high volcanos of the chain in the north of the basin of Salina of Laguna Verde
• List of the principal volcanos of South America
• the volcano Los Patos which borders the basin in the west