Antofagasta Region
The Antofagasta Region (, ) is one of Chile's Administrative divisions of Chile, sixteen first-order administrative divisions. Being the second-largest region of Chile in area, it comprises three provinces, Antofagasta Province, Antofagasta, El Loa and Tocopilla Province, Tocopilla. It is bordered to the north by Tarapacá Region, Tarapacá, by Atacama Region, Atacama to the south, and to the east by Bolivia and Argentina. The region's capital is the port city of Antofagasta; another one of its important cities is Calama, Chile, Calama. The region's main economic activity is copper mining in Chile, copper mining in its giant inland porphyry copper, porphyry copper systems. Antofagasta's climate of Chile, climate is extremely arid, albeit somewhat milder near the coast. Nearly all of the region is devoid of vegetation, except close to the Loa River and at oases such as San Pedro de Atacama. Much of the inland is covered by Salt pan (geology), salt flats, tephra and lava flows, and ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Regions Of Chile
Chile is divided into 16 regions (in Spanish language, Spanish, ''regiones''; singular ), which are the country's first-level administrative division. Each region is headed by directly elected Regional Governor (Chile), regional governor (''gobernador regional'') and a regional board (''consejo regional''). The regions are divided into Provinces of Chile, provinces (the second-level administrative division), each headed by a governor (''gobernador'') appointed by the President. There are 56 provinces in total. Provinces are divided into Communes of Chile, communes (the third and lowest level administrative division), which are governed by municipal councils. Naming Each region was given a Roman numeral, followed by a name (e.g. ''IV Región de Coquimbo'', read as "fourth region of Coquimbo" in Spanish). When the regional structure was created, Roman numerals were assigned in ascending order from north to south, with the northernmost region designated as I (first) and the southern ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Calama, Chile
Calama is a city and commune in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile. It is the capital of El Loa Province, part of the Antofagasta Region. Calama is one of the driest cities in the world with average annual precipitation of just . The River Loa, Chile's longest, flows through the city. Calama has a population of 147,886 (2012 census). The commune also encompasses the Quechua communities of Estación San Pedro, Toconce and Cupo; and the Lickan-antay communities of Taira, Conchi Viejo, Lasana, San Francisco de Chiu Chiu, Aiquina-Turi, and Caspana. In 2003 the nearby town of Chuquicamata, once the largest open-pit copper mine in the world, was dismantled citing environmental reasons and encroachment from the mine's expansion. Residents of Chuquicamata then moved to Calama, away from company-owned residences, to find housing on their own. Etymology There are a variety of hypotheses about the origin of the name "Calama," but the two main accounts suggest that it comes from ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Litoral Department
The Department of the Litoral, also known as the Atacama Department and commonly known as the Bolivian coast, was the description of the extent of the Pacific coast of the Atacama Desert included in the territory of Bolivia from its inception in 1825 until 1879, when it was lost to Chile. Background When Bolivia emerged in 1825 as an independent state, these territories were part of the Bolivian Potosí Department. During the government of Andrés de Santa Cruz, the territories were established as the Department of the Litoral. The main towns on the Pacific coast, from north to south, were Tocopilla, Cobija, Mejillones and Antofagasta. The port of Paposo was taken from the colony as the capital of the coast Atacameño. After it consolidated its independence, Chile executed various acts of sovereignty on the northern desert coast. It established its territory throughout the coast to the mouth of the River Loa, forming a border with Peru. Chile would have expanded more, but ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Saltpeter
Potassium nitrate is a chemical compound with a sharp, salty, bitter taste and the chemical formula . It is a potassium salt of nitric acid. This salt consists of potassium cations and nitrate anions , and is therefore an alkali metal nitrate. It occurs in nature as a mineral, niter (or ''nitre'' outside the United States). It is a source of nitrogen, and nitrogen was named after niter. Potassium nitrate is one of several nitrogen-containing compounds collectively referred to as saltpetre (or saltpeter in the United States). Major uses of potassium nitrate are in fertilizers, tree stump removal, rocket propellants and fireworks. It is one of the major constituents of traditional gunpowder (black powder). In processed meats, potassium nitrate reacts with hemoglobin and myoglobin generating a red color. Etymology Nitre, or potassium nitrate, because of its early and global use and production, has many names. As for nitrate, Egyptian and Hebrew words for it had the consonan ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Atacameños
The Atacama people, also called Atacameño, are an Indigenous people from the Atacama Desert and altiplano region in the north of Chile and Argentina and southern Bolivia, mainly the Antofagasta Region. According to the Argentinean Census in 2010, 13,936 people identified as first-generation Atacameño in Argentina, while Chile was home to 21,015 Atacameño people as of 2002.2002 Chilean census Instituto nacional de estadisticas de Chile retrieved on May 17, 2015 Other names include Kunza and Likanantaí. History The origins of Atacameño culture can be traced back to 500 AD. The[...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Changos
The Changos, also known as Camanchacos or Camanchangos, are an Indigenous people or group of peoples who inhabited a long stretch of the Pacific coast from southern Peru to north-central Chile, including the coast of the Atacama Desert. Although much of the customs and culture of the Chango people have disappeared and in many cases they have been considered extinct, in Chile they are legally recognized as an original indigenous people since 2020, and about 4,725 people self-declare that they belong to this ethnic group. History Definition and context of the Changos The culture originated in the 8,000-year-old Chinchorro tradition. Due to a combination of conquest and integration into other cultures and ethnicities, the Chango culture is now considered extinct. However, in Chile they are legally recognized as an original indigenous people since 2020, and about 4,725 people self-declare that they belong to this ethnic group. The Changos were not a distinct tribe or ethnic group ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Coastal Cliff Of Northern Chile
250px, View of the arid mountains near Iquique ending abruptly in the Pacific Ocean. The Coastal Cliff of northern Chile () stretches over a length of more than 1000 km along the Atacama Desert. It makes up a large part of the western boundary to the Chilean Coast Range in the regions of Arica y Parinacota, Tarapacá, Antofagasta, and Atacama. According to Roland Paskoff, the modern cliff originated from a scarp retreat of a fault scarp, thus at present the cliff does not follow any fault. Paskoff, R. (1979). Sobre la Evolución Geomorfológica del gran acantilado costero del Norte Grande de Chile. '' Norte Grande'' (in Spanish). Universidad Católica de Chile, Instituto de Geografía, 6, 7-22. In some locations, a series of coastal benches can be found below the cliff. Despite alternating uplift and subsidence of the continent at a decadal timescale the cliff and the whole western edge of the South American Plate The South American plate is a major tectonic plate wh ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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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 Natural satellite, moon onto its surface. Lava may be erupted at a volcano or through a Fissure vent, fracture in the Crust (geology), crust, on land or underwater, usually at temperatures from . The volcanic rock resulting from subsequent cooling is often also called ''lava''. A lava flow is an outpouring of lava during an effusive eruption. (An explosive eruption, by contrast, produces a mixture of volcanic ash and other fragments called tephra, not lava flows.) The viscosity of most lava is about that of ketchup, roughly 10,000 to 100,000 times that of water. Even so, lava can flow great distances before cooling causes it to solidify, because lava exposed to air quickly develops a solid crust that insulates the remaining liquid lava, helping to keep it hot and inviscid enough to continue flowing. Etymology The word ''lava'' comes from Ital ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Tephra
Tephra is fragmental material produced by a Volcano, volcanic eruption regardless of composition, fragment size, or emplacement mechanism. Volcanologists also refer to airborne fragments as pyroclasts. Once clasts have fallen to the ground, they remain as tephra unless hot enough to fuse into pyroclastic rock or tuff. When a volcano explodes, it releases a variety of tephra including ash, cinders, and blocks. These layers settle on the land and, over time, sedimentation occurs incorporating these tephra layers into the geologic record. Tephrochronology is a geochronological technique that uses discrete layers of tephra—volcanic ash from a single eruption—to create a chronological framework in which Paleoecology, paleoenvironmental or Archaeology, archaeological records can be placed. Often, when a volcano explodes, biological organisms are killed and their remains are buried within the tephra layer. These fossils are later dated by scientists to determine the age of the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Salt Pan (geology)
Natural salt pans or salt flats are flat expanses of ground covered with salt and other minerals, usually shining white under the sun. They are found in deserts and are natural formations (unlike salt evaporation ponds, which are artificial). A salt pan forms by evaporation of a water pool, such as a lake or pond. This happens in climates where the rate of water evaporation exceeds the rate of that is, in a desert. If the water cannot drain into the ground, it remains on the surface until it evaporates, leaving behind minerals precipitated from the salt ions Solution (chemistry), dissolved in the water. Over thousands of years, the minerals (usually salts) accumulate on the surface. These minerals reflect the sun's rays and often appear as white areas. Salt pans can be dangerous. The crust of salt can conceal a quagmire of mud that can engulf a truck. The Qattara Depression in the eastern Sahara Desert contains many such traps which served as strategic barriers during World War ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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San Pedro De Atacama
San Pedro de Atacama is a Chilean town and commune in El Loa Province, Antofagasta Region. It is located east of Antofagasta, some 106 km (60 mi) southeast of Calama and the Chuquicamata copper mine, overlooking the Licancabur volcano. It features a significant archeological museum, the R. P. Gustavo Le Paige Archaeological Museum, with a large collection of relics and artifacts from the region. Native ruins nearby attract increasing numbers of tourists interested in learning about pre-Columbian cultures. History San Pedro de Atacama grew, over centuries, around an oasis in the Puna de Atacama, an arid high plateau. Its first inhabitants were the Atacameños, who developed basketworks and ceramic pottery crafts that can be now be appreciated by tourists in the several souvenir shops as typical products of San Pedro de Atacama. There is debate over what degree of connection the Atacameños had to the Tiwanaku culture. It was part of Bolivia since independence from ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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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 slopes at the foot of Miño Volcano. The upper Loa basin is flanked on the west by a ridge with elevations that reach above , whereas to the east lies a volcanic chain (including Aucanquilcha, Palpana and San Pedro), which separates it from endorheic basins as that of Salar de Ascotán. The river flows south on an elevated plateau from to altitude, part of the Alto Loa National Reserve, for about , to the oasis of Chiu Chiu. The upper courses of the river are at a considerable elevation above sea level and receive water from the Andes, mainly of two major tributaries: San Pedro de Inacaliri River and Salado River. The former joins the Loa near Conchi dam and reservoir and the latter about south of Chiu Chiu. The water of its uppe ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |