Salado River is a river of Chile located in

El Loa Province El Loa Province ( es, Provincia El Loa) is one of three provinces of the northern Chilean region of Antofagasta (II). It is named after the longest of rivers in Chile, the Loa River. The provincial capital is Calama. Geography and demography A ...

Antofagasta Region The Antofagasta Region ( es, Región de Antofagasta, ) is one of Chile's sixteen first-order administrative divisions. The second-largest region of Chile in area, it comprises three provinces, Antofagasta, El Loa and Tocopilla. It is bordered t ...

which is in the northern part of the country. It is formed at the confluence of over 30

spring Spring(s) may refer to: Common uses * Spring (season), a season of the year * Spring (device), a mechanical device that stores energy * Spring (hydrology), a natural source of water * Spring (mathematics), a geometric surface in the shape of a ...

branches emerging from

El Tatio El Tatio is a geothermal field with many geysers located in the Andes Mountains of northern Chile at above mean sea level. It is the third-largest geyser field in the world and the largest in the Southern Hemisphere. Various meanings have bee ...

area. Flowing briefly south, it turns west and passes through a canyon carved in volcanic rocks. In its middle course, the river receives the ''Toconce River'' (originated at the foot of

Linzor Volcán Linzor is a stratovolcano on the border between Bolivia and Chile. In its vicinity lie Laguna Colorada and Cerro del León. Geology Regional Since the late Oligocene, subduction of the Nazca Plate beneath the South America Plate ha ...

volcano) from the north and the ''Caspana River'' from the south. In this area, a part of the flow of its affluents is diverted for providing water for domestic consumption in

Antofagasta Antofagasta () is a port city in northern Chile, about north of Santiago. It is the capital of Antofagasta Province and Antofagasta Region. According to the 2015 census, the city has a population of 402,669. After the Spanish American wars ...

and

Tocopilla Tocopilla is a city and commune in the Antofagasta Region, in the north of Chile. It is the capital of the province that bears the same name. Every year Tocopilla celebrates its anniversary on 29 September with a big show the day before, which ...

, among other localities. After being joined by the two streams before mentioned, the Salado River enters in a floodplain area, which is used for pasturage by the inhabitants of the nearby localities, including

Toconce Toconce is a small Chilean village located on the south rim of the Toconce River Canyon at 3,350 m above sea level. To the north, the landscape is dominated by the volcanoes Cerro Paniri, Cerro del León and Toconce. See also *Ayquina Ayquina (a ...

Caspana Caspana is a Chilean village located 85 km northeast of the city of Calama, in the gorge carved by the river that shared its name and that is a tributary of the Salado River. Agricultural terraces form part of the landscape of the area. Its ...

and

Aiquina Ayquina (also spelled as Aiquina) is a village located on the northern flank of Salado River Canyon in the Calama commune of the El Loa Province in Chile's Antofagasta Region. It sits at an elevation of above sea level. The festival of Our Lady ...

. Then, the Salado again flows through a narrow canyon, where is found the so-called ''Devil's Bridge'', a cut through

rhyolite Rhyolite ( ) is the most silica-rich of volcanic rocks. It is generally glassy or fine-grained (aphanitic) in texture, but may be porphyritic, containing larger mineral crystals (phenocrysts) in an otherwise fine-grained groundmass. The mineral ...

terrain of 5 m wide. Finally, the Salado empties into the

Loa River The Loa River (Spanish: Río Loa) is a U-shaped river in Chile's northern Antofagasta Region. At long, it is the country's longest river and the main watercourse in the Atacama Desert. Course The Loa's sources are located on Andean mountain sl ...

, the main watercourse of the Chilean

Norte Grande The Norte Grande (''Big North'', ''Far North'', ''Great North'') is one of the five natural regions into which CORFO divided continental Chile in 1950. It borders Peru to the north, the Pacific Ocean to the west, the Altiplano, Bolivia and Ar ...

, about 3 km south of

Chiuchiu San Francisco de Chiu Chiu, or simply Chiu Chiu, is a village located about northeast of the city of Calama, in El Loa Province of Chile's northern Antofagasta Region. It lies at an elevation of above sea level, close to the confluence of the L ...

References

*This article draws heavily on the corresponding article in the Spanish-language Wikipedia, accessed August 16, 2007. * Rivers of Antofagasta Region Rivers of Chile {{Chile-river-stub