Puquio de Núñez is a small

oasis In ecology, an oasis (; ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environment'ksar''with its surrounding feeding source, the palm grove, within a relational and circulatory nomadic system.” The location of oases has been of critical imp ...

and

orchard An orchard is an intentional plantation of trees or shrubs that is maintained for food production. Orchards comprise fruit- or nut-producing trees which are generally grown for commercial production. Orchards are also sometimes a feature of larg ...

in the

Atacama Desert The Atacama Desert ( es, Desierto de Atacama) is a desert plateau in South America covering a 1,600 km (990 mi) strip of land on the Pacific coast, west of the Andes Mountains. The Atacama Desert is the driest nonpolar desert in the ...

of Chile. The oasis is irrigated by an underground canal, a

puquio Puquio (from Quechua: ''Pukyu'', meaning "spring of water") is a town in Central Peru, South America. It is the capital of the province Lucanas in the region Ayacucho Ayacucho (, qu, Ayak'uchu) is the capital city of Ayacucho Region and of ...

tapping

Pampa del Tamarugal Aquifer Pampa del Tamarugal Aquifer ( es, acuífero de la Pampa del Tamarugal) located in Tarapacá Region of northern Chile is one of the most important aquifers of Atacama Desert. At the oasis of Puquio de Núñez the water of the aquifer is tapped by ...

. Puqui de Núñez lies about 10 kilometers south of the nearby oases of

Matilla Matilla is a Chilean village and oasis in the interior of Atacama Desert. It lies four kilometers southwest of the oasis town of Pica. As of 2017 Matilla had 380 inhabitants and 217 homes. It host underground aqueducts in various states of decay. ...

and Pica. As the puquios of Pica and Matilla tap the

Pica Aquifer Pica Aquifer ( es, acuífero de Pica) located in Tarapacá Region of northern Chile is one of the most important aquifers of Atacama Desert. The water of the aquifer is tapped by a system of underground aqueducts known as puquios to irrigate the ...

, it is thought that the hydraulic divide between the aquifers of Pampa del Tamarugal and Pica should be between Puquio de Núñez and Matilla. Located 1,187 meters

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as ''orthometric heights''. The comb ...

(m asl.) the water at Puquio de Núñez is estimated to come from a recharge zone at ~3,000 m asl.

References

Oases of Chile Geography of Tarapacá Region Localities irrigated by puquios Orchards {{Tarapacá-geo-stub