Monte Pissis is an extinct

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 ...

on the border of

La Rioja La Rioja () is an autonomous community and province in Spain, in the north of the Iberian Peninsula. Its capital is Logroño. Other cities and towns in the province include Calahorra, Arnedo, Alfaro, Haro, Santo Domingo de la Calzada, an ...

and Catamarca

provinces A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

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 ...

, from the

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 ...

border Borders are usually defined as geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other subnational entities. Political borders c ...

. The

mountain A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually highe ...

is the third-highest in the

Western Hemisphere The Western Hemisphere is the half of the planet Earth that lies west of the prime meridian (which crosses Greenwich, London, United Kingdom) and east of the antimeridian. The other half is called the Eastern Hemisphere. Politically, the te ...

, and is located about north of

Aconcagua Aconcagua () is a mountain in the Principal Cordillera of the Andes mountain range, in Mendoza Province, Argentina. It is the highest mountain in the Americas, the highest outside Asia, and the highest in the Southern Hemisphere with a summi ...

. Monte Pissis is named after Pedro José Amadeo Pissis, a French

geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid, liquid, and gaseous matter that constitutes Earth and other terrestrial planets, as well as the processes that shape them. Geologists usually study geology, earth science, or geophysics, althoug ...

who worked for the

an government. Due to its location 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 th ...

, the mountain has very dry conditions but there is an extensive

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

(with

crevasse A crevasse is a deep crack, that forms in a glacier or ice sheet that can be a few inches across to over 40 feet. Crevasses form as a result of the movement and resulting stress associated with the shear stress generated when two semi-rigid pie ...

s, which is unique in the region)

Elevation

A 1994 Argentine expedition claimed —using

GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of the global navigation satellite sy ...

technology available at the time— that the elevation of Monte Pissis was , higher than

Ojos del Salado Nevado Ojos del Salado is a dormant complex volcano in the Andes on the Argentina–Chile border. It is the highest volcano on Earth and the highest peak in Chile. The upper reaches of Ojos del Salado consist of several overlapping lava domes, ...

. Ten years later, with the use of higher precision systems, several other surveys proved that those measurements were inaccurate: in 2005, an Austrian team performed a

DGPS Differential Global Positioning Systems (DGPSs) supplement and enhance the positional data available from global navigation satellite systems (GNSSs). A DGPS for GPS can increase accuracy by about a thousandfold, from approximately to . DGPSs ...

survey of Pissis' summit and found the elevation to be . In 2006 an international expedition surveyed the height on the summit, and found results in agreement with an elevation around . This was later confirmed by a 2007 Chilean-Argentine-European expedition, which surveyed both Ojos del Salado and Monte Pissis and provisionally found the former to be and the latter .

Geology

Monte Pissis is a large

andesitic Andesite () is a volcanic rock of intermediate composition. In a general sense, it is the intermediate type between silica-poor basalt and silica-rich rhyolite. It is fine-grained (aphanitic) to porphyritic in texture, and is composed predomin ...

dacitic Dacite () is a volcanic rock formed by rapid solidification of lava that is high in silica and low in alkali metal oxides. It has a fine-grained (aphanitic) to porphyritic texture and is intermediate in composition between andesite and rhyol ...

volcanic centre. It was formed between 6.6 and 6.2 million years ago. Like Cerro Bonete Chico it is one of the large volcanic complexes formed at that time over a deforming

Nazca Nazca (; sometimes spelled Nasca; qu, Naska) is a city and system of valleys on the southern coast of Peru. It is also the name of the largest existing town in the Nazca Province. The name is derived from the Nazca culture, which flourished in ...

slab Slab or SLAB may refer to: Physical materials * Concrete slab, a flat concrete plate used in construction * Stone slab, a flat stone used in construction * Slab (casting), a length of metal * Slab (geology), that portion of a tectonic plate tha ...

Volcanism Volcanism, vulcanism or volcanicity is the phenomenon of eruption of molten rock (magma) onto the surface of the Earth or a solid-surface planet or moon, where lava, pyroclastics, and volcanic gases erupt through a break in the surface called a ...

in the area ceased about 2 million years ago. Monte Pissis, Cerro Bonete Chico and Incapillo form a large volcanic complex that is among the highest in the world. Incapillo formed after Monte Pissis had ceased erupting, and

hydrothermal Hydrothermal circulation in its most general sense is the circulation of hot water (Ancient Greek ὕδωρ, ''water'',Liddell, H.G. & Scott, R. (1940). ''A Greek-English Lexicon. revised and augmented throughout by Sir Henry Stuart Jones. with th ...

activity at Incapillo may continue to this day.

Climbing

Until recently, this mountain had received very little attention. The first successful recorded ascent was achieved in 1937 by Polish climbers Osiecki and Szczepanski. The mountain was not climbed again until 1985. The opening of mining in the area has resulted in the construction of basic roads in the last 15 years. This has developed the tourism in the Atacama Desert and now more people ascend the mountain, usually with a previous stop in Fiambalá to organise the climb. Approaching it from neighbouring Chile is also possible but involves a longer way. As the mountain is very high and remote, a long approach is required but the ascent is easy and does not require any specific climbing skill. Nevertheless, warm clothing and good shoes are required as temperature during the night can drop as low as and winds can be very strong. Usually most teams ascend the peak during December to March, the warmest period of the year. Pissis from high camp (5,900 m)

The peak is one of the most heavily glaciated peaks in the Atacama Desert, although the glaciated area starts only at and the size of the glacier is small compared to the overall surface of the mountain. From the base of the mountain several days of hike are required. The summit is usually reached directly from a high camp at at the edge of the glacier.

References

11. Villarreal, Bob (2014). "Clawing for the Stars: A Solo Climber in the Highest Andes." ISBN 978-1-4582-1322-8. Site: bobvillarreal.com

Bibliography

Notes

External links

Pissis in Andeshandbook

Pissis on Summitpost

Pissis Jan-2008 climb on Distantpeak
{{Seven Third Summits Pissis Mountains of Catamarca Province Mountains of La Rioja Province, Argentina Volcanoes of La Rioja Province, Argentina Pissis Pissis Seven Third Summits Six-thousanders of the Andes Miocene stratovolcanoes