Pampa del Tamarugal

The Pampa del Tamarugal is a largely barren landscape. As in this picture, which shows part of the Humberstone saltpeter works, numerous ruins of the saltpeter industry can be found in the sterile plain.

Pampa del Tamarugal is a tectonic depression in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile .

geography

The Pampa del Tamarugal extends in a continuous strip with north-south orientation over an estimated 17,253 km². It is limited to the west by the 600 m contour line in the coastal cordillera and to the east by the 1500 m contour line in the Andean precordillera. In the north it extends to the Pampa de Tana not far from Pisagua and in the south to the Río Loa .

In the Pampa del Tamarugal there are a number of dry river beds. Sometimes there are even forests of Tamarugo trees ( Prosopis tamarugo ) here. These acacia-like trees have roots up to 40 m deep.

tourism

The nature reserve Reserva Nacional Pampa del Tamarugal is located about 70 km east of Iquique near the cities of Pozo Almonte and Huara . It covers around 1,022 km². In addition to the Atacama Desert , the salt lakes, volcanoes , geysers and the old saltpeter mining systems are the main attractions.

The World Heritage Site , the Humberstone and Santa Laura Saltpeter Works , can be found 50 km east of Iquique .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Dirección General de Aguas, Gobierno de Chile, Ministerio de Obras Públicas (ed.): Cuenca Quebrada de Tarapacá. Diagnostico y clasificación de los cursos y cuerpos de agua según objetivos de calidad . Santiago de Chile 2004 ( sinia.cl [PDF; 1000 kB ; accessed on January 4, 2016]). sinia.cl ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.