page_title: Sairecabur
section_title: Geography
hierarchical_section_title: Sairecabur / Geology and geography / Geography
caption_attribution_description: English: Licancabur from the top of Sairecabur Deutsch: Licancabur vom Gipfel des Sairecabur
context_page_description: Sairecabur is a volcano located on the frontier between Bolivia and Chile. It is part of the Andean Central Volcanic Zone. Sairecabur proper is 5,971 metres high; other mountains in the range are 5,722 metres high Curiquinca, 5,819 metres high Escalante and 5,748 metres high Cerro Colorado, all of which have erupted a number of lava flows. Also in close proximity to Sairecabur lie the volcanic centres Licancabur, Putana and Juriques.
  Sairecabur proper is accompanied by a 4.5-kilometre wide caldera. Before the formation of this caldera the volcano may have been 7,000 metres high and thus one of the highest volcanoes on Earth. After the formation of this caldera lava effusion occurred during the Pleistocene and Holocene; there is no reported historical activity, however. Eruption products on Escalante and Sairecabur include andesite and dacite. The climate is dry, cold and very sunny.
  An Inca sanctuary has been found on Sairecabur, and sulfur mines exist in the mountain chain. More recently, the Receiver Lab Telescope was installed on the volcano. It is the highest submillimeter telescope in the world at an altitude of 5,525 metres.
context_section_description: Sairecabur is located at a distance of 25 kilometres (16 mi) from San Pedro de Atacama. The volcano saddles the frontier between Bolivia and Chile, where it lies in the Antofagasta Region. Laguna Verde lake, Licancabur volcano and Portezuelo de Chaxas pass lie south of Sairecabur. East of the Sairecabur range lie Mount Nelly and Cerro Laguna Verde.
  The Treaty of Peace and Friendship (1904) traced the frontier between Bolivia and Chile along the Sairecabur chain. Disagreements between the topographic maps in the two countries mean that the naming of the mountains is often confusing. Escalante is also known as Apagado.
  The volcano is associated with a mountain range of the same name. The Sairecabur range forms a drainage divide between the Salar de Atacama on the western side and a number of small endorheic basins in Bolivia on the eastern side. Licancabur and Juriques farther south and Tocorpuri farther north are part of the same divide. Dry valleys on the eastern side of the Sairecabur range ultimately drain into Laguna Verde. The Rio Purifica originates on Sairecabur's slope at an altitude of 3,950 metres (12,960 ft), it later converges with the Rio Puritama to form the San Pedro de Atacama River.
caption: Licancabur seen from Sairecabur
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