Tolar Grande is a village and rural municipality in

Salta Province Salta () is a Provinces of Argentina, province of Argentina, located in the northwest of the country. Neighboring provinces are from the east clockwise Formosa Province, Formosa, Chaco Province, Chaco, Santiago del Estero Province, Santiago del Es ...

in northwestern

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

Climate

The climate is typical of the puna area and more precisely of the very dry

Puna de Atacama The Puna de Atacama or Atacama Plateau''Atacama Plateau''
article at the ''Encyclopædia Bri ...

, with very little rainfall, moderate-temperature summers and harsh winters. A significant characteristic is the great

diurnal air temperature variation In meteorology, diurnal temperature variation is the variation between a high air temperature and a low temperature that occurs during the same day. Temperature lag Temperature lag, also known as thermal inertia, is an important factor in diurna ...

, which can reach a difference of 30 °C between the minimum and maximum temperature of the same day.

Population

According to estimates, by 2015 the population amounted to 210 people. This notable increase was due to policies promoted by local authorities with the aim of reversing the emigration process and the consequent depopulation.

History

Tolar Grande had its period of maximum expansion towards the 1940s. At that time, the town constituted the end of the railroad branch to

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 ...

, projected to unite the city of

Salta Salta () is the capital and largest city in the Provinces of Argentina, Argentine province of Salta Province, the same name. With a population of 618,375 according to the 2010 census, it is also the List of cities in Argentina, 7th most-populous ...

with the city of

Antofagasta Antofagasta () is a port city in northern Chile, about north of Santiago. It is the capital of Antofagasta Province and Antofagasta Region. According to the 2015 census, the city has a population of 402,669. Once claimed by Bolivia follo ...

. It is estimated that at that time, around 5000 people lived in the town, mainly dedicated to railway activity. At the same time, during this period the La Casualidad Mine was in full activity, transporting the

sulfur Sulfur ( American spelling and the preferred IUPAC name) or sulphur ( Commonwealth spelling) is a chemical element; it has symbol S and atomic number 16. It is abundant, multivalent and nonmetallic. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms ...

cargoes from Mina Julia to the Tolar Grande railway station, to be shipped from there to their final destination. The closure of the mine, the interruption of the railway project, and then the total closure of the branch led to the depopulation of the region, with the consequent deterioration of the living conditions of the few residents who decided not to leave the town.

Overview

The village is located in the middle of the

Puna de Atacama The Puna de Atacama or Atacama Plateau''Atacama Plateau''
article at the ''Encyclopædia Bri ...

, 357 km far from the city of

and near the

Salar de Arizaro Salar de Arizaro ("Arizaro" comes from Atacameno "crow", "condor" and , , "accommodation", "place where something is common".) is a large salt flat of the Andes in north-western Argentina. It is located between the villages of Tolar Grande an ...

. It is served by the

Salta–Antofagasta railway The Salta–Antofagasta railway, also named Huaytiquina, is a non-electrified single track railway line that links Argentina and Chile passing through the Andes. It is a railway with a total length of 941 km (571 in Argentina and 330 in Ch ...

and is 170 km from

and borders at

Socompa Socompa is a large stratovolcano (composite volcano) on the border of Argentina and Chile. It has an elevation of and is part of the Chilean and Argentine Andean Volcanic Belt (AVB). Socompa is within the Central Volcanic Zone, one of the segme ...

. The tourist attraction Ojos de Mar lies nearby. With a municipal area of 13,785 km², it covers at almost half of the

Los Andes Department Los Andes (i.e.: ''The Andes'') is a department located in Salta Province, Argentina. It is the second largest by area in the province, after Rivadavia Department, and its capital is the town of San Antonio de los Cobres. Geography Overview ...

territory.

Gallery

File:Cono de Arita, Salar de Arizaro (Argentina).jpg, Cono de Arita in

File:Tolar Grande El ayuntamiento..JPG, Town's view

References

External links

*
Tolar Grande on Salta Province website
Populated places in Salta Province Puna de Atacama {{Salta-geo-stub