Miscanti Lagoon near San Pedro de Atacama Chile Luca Galuzzi 2006

Miscanti Lagoon San Pedro de Atacama Chile Luca Galuzzi 2006

Salar de Talar is a 46 square kilometresGeoquímica de aguas en cuencas cerradas: I, II y III Regiones - Chile
''Salar de Aguas Calientes 3'' salt flat located in the high puna of northern

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

Andes The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...

, at an altitude of 3,950 m. It is part of a series of

salt lake A salt lake or saline lake is a landlocked body of water that has a concentration of salts (typically sodium chloride) and other dissolved minerals significantly higher than most lakes (often defined as at least three grams of salt per litre). ...

s and salt flats located at the foothills of a chain of volcanoes stretching along the eastern side of the much greater

Salar de Atacama Salar de Atacama is the largest salt flat in Chile. It is located south of San Pedro de Atacama, is surrounded by mountains, and has no drainage outlets. In the east it is enclosed by the main chain of the Andes, while to the west lies a secondar ...

. The

closed Closed may refer to: Mathematics * Closure (mathematics), a set, along with operations, for which applying those operations on members always results in a member of the set * Closed set, a set which contains all its limit points * Closed interval, ...

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, t ...

of Salar de Talar encompasses about 476 km² and is adjacent to other

endorheic basin An endorheic basin (; also spelled endoreic basin or endorreic basin) is a drainage basin that normally retains water and allows no outflow to other external bodies of water, such as rivers or oceans, but drainage converges instead into lakes ...

s, including

Laguna Miscanti Miscanti Lake (Spanish: ''Laguna Miscanti'') is a brackish water lake located in the altiplano of the Antofagasta Region in northern Chile. Cerro Miñiques volcano and Cerro Miscanti tower over this lake. This large heart-shaped lake has a deep ...

, Laguna Tuyajto and ''Salar de Capur'' basins. It was once filled by a large lake connected to Salar Purisunchi. The salty flat is bordered on the west by

Caichinque Caichinque is a volcanic complex lying between Salar de Talar and ''Salar de Capur'', in the high Andean plateau of the Antofagasta Region, in Chile. It is located southwest of the Salar de Atacama, directly S of Cerro Miñiques and SE of Cord ...

and on the east by Cerro Medano. This latter is a mountain with striking shades of grey and brown, which contrast nicely with the sparkling white of the salt flat's surface. On top of that, colorful ponds fringe its shores. An important

lava flow Lava is molten or partially molten rock (magma) that has been expelled from the interior of a terrestrial planet (such as Earth) or a moon onto its surface. Lava may be erupted at a volcano or through a fracture in the crust, on land or und ...

from the Caichinque volcanic complex formed two lobes which advanced into Salar de Talar. Salt deposits in the salt flat have polygonal shapes. The climate of the area is arid, with an average annual precipitation of about 150 mm. Salar de Talar is a part of the

Central Andean dry puna The Central Andean dry puna (NT1001) is an ecoregion in the Montane grasslands and shrublands biome, located in the Andean high plateau, in South America. It is a part of the Puna grassland. Setting This ecoregion occupies the southwestern portio ...

ecoregion, which in this zone is characterized by tussock grass vegetation.

Notes

References

Talar Talar դալար is a Western Armenian name for females. It's meaning is symbolic of the Evergreen Tree. The talar or talaar ( fa, تالار) is the throne hall of the Persian monarch that is open to the public. It includes a throne carved ...

Landforms of Antofagasta Region Puna de Atacama {{Antofagasta-geo-stub

See also

Notes

References