Miñiques is the name of a lake and a volcano in

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

. It lies south of

Laguna Miscanti 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 blue colour and developed i ...

and at the foot of the Cerro Miscanti volcano. The lake is fed from Laguna Miscanti by

seepage In soil mechanics, seepage is the movement of water through soil. If fluid pressures in a soil deposit are uniformly increasing with depth according to u = \rho_w g z_w, where z_w is the depth below the water table, then hydrostatic conditions wi ...

and its waters are brackish.

Lake

Laguna Miñiques lies at an altitude of and is a lake with a surface area of . It is a fault-bound lake like

and Laguna Lejia farther north, and receives inflow from

by seepage; a lava flow separates Laguna Miñiques from Laguna Miscanti. Like Miscanti, the waters of Laguna Miñiques are

brackish Brackish water, sometimes termed brack water, is water occurring in a natural environment that has more salinity than freshwater, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing seawater (salt water) and fresh water together, as in estuari ...

Biology

The cladocerans '' Alona pulchella'' and a ''

Daphnia ''Daphnia'' is a genus of small planktonic crustaceans, in length. ''Daphnia'' are members of the Order (biology), order Anomopoda, and are one of the several small aquatic crustaceans commonly called water fleas because their Saltation (gait), ...

'' species, and the

copepod Copepods (; meaning 'oar-feet') are a group of small crustaceans found in nearly every freshwater and saltwater habitat (ecology), habitat. Some species are planktonic (living in the water column), some are benthos, benthic (living on the sedimen ...

s '' Boeckella poopoensis'' and unidentified species of

cyclopoida The Cyclopoida are an order of small crustaceans from the class Copepoda. Like many other copepods, members of Cyclopoida are small, planktonic animals living both in the sea and in freshwater habitats. They are capable of rapid movement. Their ...

inhabit the lake. The lake is part of the

Los Flamencos National Reserve Los Flamencos National Reserve is a nature reserve located in the commune of San Pedro de Atacama, Antofagasta Region of northern Chile. The reserve covers a total area of in the Central Andean dry puna ecoregion and consists of seven separate se ...

and a

tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure, and the Commerce, commercial activity of providing and supporting such travel. World Tourism Organization, UN Tourism defines tourism more generally, in terms which go "beyond the common perception of tourism as ...

destination.

Climate

The regional climate is dry and influenced by the

Atacama Desert The Atacama Desert () is a desert plateau located on the Pacific Ocean, Pacific coast of South America, in the north of Chile. Stretching over a strip of land west of the Andes Mountains, it covers an area of , which increases to if the barre ...

in that regard, although the summits of the Western Cordillera have higher precipitation amounts, especially towards the north such as at

Parinacota Parinacota (in Hispanicized spelling), Parina Quta or Parinaquta ( Aymara, ''parina'' flamingo, ''quta'' lake, "flamingo lake", other Hispanicized spellings ''Parinaccota, Parinajota'') may refer to: Lakes * Parinaquta (Carabaya), in Peru, Puno ...

. The dry climate restrains the development of

glacier A glacier (; or ) is a persistent body of dense ice, a form of rock, that is constantly moving downhill under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires ...

s in favour of a terrain that is influenced by

periglacial Periglaciation (adjective: "periglacial", referring to places at the edges of glacial areas) describes geomorphic processes that result from seasonal thawing and freezing, very often in areas of permafrost. The meltwater may refreeze in ice wedg ...

processes. Presently, the average precipitation on Laguna Miñiques is about and the annual temperature averages . During the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...

and earliest

Holocene The Holocene () is the current geologic time scale, geological epoch, beginning approximately 11,700 years ago. It follows the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene to ...

however increased precipitation resulted in advances of glaciers and in the growth of lakes. In the case of Miñiques, the lakes Miscanti and Pampa Varela (now a dry lake) farther south became connected; a stream

delta Delta commonly refers to: * Delta (letter) (Δ or δ), the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet * D (NATO phonetic alphabet: "Delta"), the fourth letter in the Latin alphabet * River delta, at a river mouth * Delta Air Lines, a major US carrier ...

at Miñiques goes back to that time.

References

Sources

* * {{Commons category, Laguna Miñiques Miñiques Miñiques