The San Francisco Pass is a pass over the
Andes mountains which connects
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
and
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 ...
. The highest point of this pass is at
AMSL.
Location
The pass is located at and connects the Argentine province of
Catamarca with the
Atacama Region in Chile. In the Argentine side,
route N 60 ascends from
Fiambala at AMSL in a deep valley formed by mountains. In the last sinuous , the route climbs from about in Las grutas to more than at the border.
On the Chilean side the route
CH-31 connects
Copiapó
Copiapó () is a city and commune in northern Chile, located about 65 kilometers east of the coastal town of Caldera. Founded on December 8, 1744, it is the capital of Copiapó Province and Atacama Region.
Copiapó lies about 800 km nort ...
with the ChileanArgentine border. On the way it passes next to Maricunga's salt flat on the
Nevado Tres Cruces National Park and
Laguna Verde. The area is surrounded by
volcano
A volcano is a rupture in the Crust (geology), crust of a Planet#Planetary-mass objects, planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and volcanic gas, gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface.
On Ear ...
es and high peaks as the Cerro
Falso Azufre (), the volcano
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
(), the
Incahuasi
Incahuasi (; possibly from Quechua: ''inka'' Inca, ''wasi'' house) is a volcanic mountain in the Andes of South America. It lies on the border of the Catamarca Province of Argentina and the Atacama Region of Chile. Incahuasi has a summit elevat ...
() and highest volcano in the world,
Nevado Ojos del Salado (), among others.
Gallery
File:Paso San Francisco 2.jpg
File:Paso San Francisco 3.jpg
File:Ruta 60 Argentina Paso san Francisco.jpg
See also
*
Cerro Torta
*
Laguna Verde (Chile)
References
Argentina–Chile border crossings
Mountain passes of Chile
Mountain passes of Argentina
Mountain passes of the Andes
Landforms of Atacama Region
Landforms of Catamarca Province
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