Miñiques

Miñiques
View of the north-west side of the Miñiques when bypassing the mountain on the Ruta 23 road from Socaire to the Chilean-Argentine border.
height	5910  m
location	Chile , Socaire ( San Pedro de Atacama )
Mountains	To the
Coordinates	23 ° 49 ′ 0 "  S , 67 ° 45 ′ 30"  W Coordinates: 23 ° 49 ′ 0 "  S , 67 ° 45 ′ 30"  W
rock	Dazite and Andesite
Age of the rock	Pleistocene
Viewed from the Socaire direction, the Miñiques has a characteristic silhouette with three peaks. The south peak in the middle, its secondary peak to the right and the north peak on the left.
At the foot of the Miñiques, 5 km from the summit, at 4140  m there is a salt lake of the same name. An enclosure bounded by a dry stone wall was used by the municipality of Socaire to keep cattle. Today the zone is part of the Los Flamencos National Reserve and a popular destination for tourists.

The Miñiques is an extinct volcano in the Altiplano in the Andean Western Cordillera in northern Chile.

description

(  Map with all coordinates: OSM | WikiMap ) The Miñiques belongs to the western cordillera of the central Andes in northern Chile. In the Altiplano it is relatively isolated from the neighboring mountains. Above the plain at its foot at an average of 4100  m , it rises around 2800 m with flanks that become increasingly steeper upwards. It has several peaks that can be seen from afar. The higher south summit ( 23 ° 49 ′ 0 ″  S , 67 ° 45 ′ 30 ″  W ) reaches 5910  m and the slightly lower north summit ( 23 ° 48 ′ 12 ″  S , 67 ° 45 ′ 22 ″  W ) 5790  m . An edge about 500 m southeast of the south summit forms a secondary summit ( 23 ° 49 ′ 13 ″  S , 67 ° 45 ′ 20 ″  W ) with about 5850  m . To the west is a plateau about 4900  m , with another secondary peak ( 23 ° 49 ′ 3 ″  S , 67 ° 47 ′ 38 ″  W ) with 4970  m . Near the peaks at 5450  m and 5500  m there are two crater lakes , embedded in hollows with a wall height of 150 to 200 m.

The Miñiques is an extinct volcano . Its volcanic cone is made up of Pleistocene Dazites and Andesites .

The region in which it is located belongs to the summer rain area of the Atacama Desert . There is little vegetation. On the mountain, the vegetation cover is only 10 to 15% from 4500  m . There is no glaciation.

Local mountain sanctuary

The Church of Socaire was oriented towards the Miñiques in adaptation to local indigenous myths.

The closest settlement to the Miñiques is the indigenous Atacameño community of Socaire ( 23 ° 35 ′  S , 67 ° 53 ′  W , 3274  m ). It is located to the northwest of the mountain, almost 30 km away. The cone of the Miñiques is there, along with the Tumisa ( 23 ° 28 ′  S , 67 ° 49 ′  W , 5658  m ), Lausa (Lejía) ( 23 ° 33 ′  S , 67 ° 46 ′  W , 5793  m ), Chiliques ( 23 ° 35 ′  S , 67 ° 42 ′  W , 5778  m ) and Ipira (Miscanti) ( 23 ° 40 ′  S , 67 ° 43 ′  W , 5613  m ) part of the visible horizon. These five mountains are perceived by the locals as the fingers of a gigantic open left hand looming over the terrain, with the miñiques representing the little finger . For the community, these mountains are important sacred landscape features on the horizon, with optical connecting lines to a central place of worship. They serve as elements of a local sun-moon calendar, with the help of which community activities are scheduled during the course of the year. The calendar lines converge at the Catholic Church. The clay building from the 16th century, with its roof ridge and bell tower, is oriented towards the Miñiques, above which from this perspective the Southern Cross stands.

The Miñiques has been a mountain sanctuary since prehistoric times. There are several prehistoric places of worship near the summit, including archaeological remains of the Inca .

Web links

Commons : Miñiques  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h} Schröder, Hilmar (1999). "Comparative periglacial morphology in the summer rain area of ​​the Atacama". Geography. 53 (2): 119-135. doi: 10.3112 / geography . 1999.02.03 . ISSN 0014-0015. OCLC 998216719, 1006241123. (with topographic map)
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Moyano, Ricardo. "Landscape, Mountain Worship and Astronomy in Socaire." In: Ruggles C. (Ed.) Handbook of Archaeoastronomy and Ethnoastronomy. Springer New York, 2015. 921-929. doi : 10.1007 / 978-1-4614-6141-8_92 . ( online )
3. ↑ González-Ferrán, Oscar. Volcanes de Chile. Instituto Geográfico Militar, 1995. ISBN 956-202-054-1 . P. 183.
4. ↑ Moyano, R. "La Mano de Dios en Socaire: Estudio de un Calendario Agricola en Atacama, Norte de Chile". Diss. MA Thesis, ENAH, Mexico City, 2010. ( online )
5. ^ " Miscanti ". Global Volcanism Program. Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved on December 8, 2018
6. ^ De Walque, Gustavo Le Paige. "¿Se puede hablar de transhumancia en la zona atacameña ?." Estudios Atacameños. Arqueología y anthropología surandinas 3 (1975): 13-17. doi: 10.22199 / S07181043.1975.0003.00004
7. ^ Moyano, Ricardo, and Carlos Uribe. "El volcán Chiliques y el" morar-en-el-mundo "de una comunidad atacameña del norte de Chile." Estudios atacameños 43 (2012): 187-208. doi: 10.4067 / S0718-10432012000100010
8. ↑ Le Paige, Gustavo. "Vestigios arqueológicos incaicos en las cumbres de la zona atacameña." Estudios Atacameños 6 (1978): 36-52. doi: 10.22199 / S07181043.1978.0006.00005