Puno, Peru, is one of larger cities of the Altiplano.

The Altiplano (Spanish for high plain), where the Andes are at their widest, is the most extensive area of high plateau on earth outside of Tibet. It is an area of inland drainage lying in the central Andes, occupying parts of Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador. Its height averages about 3,300 meters (11,000 feet), somewhat less than that of Tibet. Unlike the Tibetan plateau, however, the Altiplano is dominated by the massive peaks of active volcanoes to the west. The Atacama Desert, the driest area on the whole planet, lies to the southwest of the Altiplano. In contrast at east lies the humid Amazon rainforest. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (2048x1536, 769 KB) View of the city of Puno, Peru. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (2048x1536, 769 KB) View of the city of Puno, Peru. ... Mayor Mariano Portugal Population  - Total 100 168 Time zone UTC-5 Height 3860 m (12421 ft) Official website: www. ... Planes view of the Andes, Peru. ... Monte Roraima In geology and earth science, a plateau, also called a high plateau or tableland, is an area of highland, usually consisting of relatively flat open country. ... Tibet (older spelling Thibet; Tibetan: བོད་; Wylie: Bod; Lhasa dialect IPA: [; Simplified and Traditional Chinese: 西藏, Hanyu Pinyin: XÄ«zàng; also referred to as 藏区 (Simplified Chinese), 藏區 (Traditional Chinese), ZàngqÅ« (Hanyu Pinyin), see Name section below) is a plateau region in Central Asia and the indigenous home to the Tibetan people. ... Planes view of the Andes, Peru. ... Tibet Autonomous Region, Qinghai Province and Sichuan Province of China lie on the Tibetan Plateau. ... For other uses, see Volcano (disambiguation). ... Atacama Desert The Atacama Desert of Chile and Peru is a virtually rainless plateau made up of salt basins (salares), sand, and lava flows, extending from the Andes mountains to the Pacific Ocean. ... Map of the Amazon rainforest ecoregions as delineated by the WWF. Yellow line encloses the Amazon rainforest. ...

At the end of the Pleistocene epoch, the whole extent of the Altiplano was covered by a vast lake, Ballivián, the present remnants of which are Lake Titicaca, straddling the Peru/Bolivia border, and Poopó, a saline lake which extends south of Oruro, Bolivia. Salar de Uyuni, locally known as "Salar de Tunupa", as well as Salar de Coipasa are two large dry salt flats formed as well after the Altiplano paleolakes dried out. The Pleistocene epoch (IPA: ) is part of the geologic timescale. ... Lake Ballivián was a vast inland sea that existed until the end of the Pleistocene. ... A boat made of reeds on Lake Titicaca. ... Poopó is a saline lake extending circa 130 kilometers southwards of Oruro, Bolivia. ... Oruro is a city in Bolivia with a population of about 248 000 (2000), located about equidistant between La Paz and Sucre at approx. ... Salar de Uyuni is the world’s largest salt flat. ...

The Bolivian Altiplano at approximately 14,000 feet. In the background rise the snow covered peaks of the Cordillera Real

The term Altiplano is also sometimes used to identify the altitude zone itself — and the type of climate that prevails within it, colder than that of the tierra fria but not as cold as that of the tierra helada; the latter is usually reckoned as commencing at an elevation of approximately 4,500 meters (or about 15,000 feet). Alternate names used in place of altiplano in this context include puna and páramos. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... The Cordillera Real (also Cordillera of Quito, Cordillera Central of Ecuador) is a chain of mountains in the Andes of Ecuador, the chief of them volcanic. ... Tierra fria (Spanish for cold land) is a pseudoclimatological term used in Latin America to refer to montaine locations within that realm, where high altitude results in a markedly cooler climate than that encountered in the lowlands at a comparable latitude. ... Tierra helada (Spanish for frozen land) is a term used in Latin America to refer to the highest places found within the Andes mountains. ... Puna is one of the eight Natural Regions of Peru. ...

In extentum, the climate is cool and semi-arid to arid, with mean annual temperatures that vary from 3 C near the western mountain range to 12 C near Lake Titicaca, and total annual rainfalls that range between less than 200 mm to the south west to more than 800 mm near and over Lake Titicaca as well. The diurnal cycle of temperature, however, is very wide with maximum temperatures in the order of 12 to 24 C and minimum in the order of -20 to 10 C. The coldest temperatures occur in the southwestern portion of the Altiplano during the months of June and July, which correspond to the Austral winter. The seasonal cycle of rainfall is marked with the rainy season concentrating between December and March. The rest of the year tends to be very dry, cool, windy and sunny. Snowfall events may happen between April and September, especially to the north, but they are not very common (1-5 events per year). An arid environment has an extremely low yearly precipitation, receiving much less rain or snowfall annually than would satisfy the climatological demand for evaporation and transpiration. ... Lake Titicaca is the highest commercially navigable lake in the world[1], at 3,812 m (12,507 feet) above sea level. ... In meteorology, precipitation is any kind of water that falls from the sky as part of the weather. ... This page is about the form of precipitation. ...

La Paz, Bolivia is the Altiplano's principal city. La Paz (NASA aerial view) Central La Paz Panoramic sight of the city of La Paz Nuestra Señora de La Paz or Chuquiyapu (chuqui, gold, yapu, farm) is the administrative capital of Bolivia, as well as the departmental capital of La Paz Department. ...

Geology: potential formation mechanisms

Several mechanisms have been suggestted as responsible for the formation of the Altiplano plateau, aiming to explain why the topography in the Andes incorporates this large area of low relief at high altitude (high plateau) within the orogen: 1.Existence of weaknesses in the Earth´s crust prior to tectonic shortening. Such weaknesses would cause the partition of tectonic deformation and uplift into eastern and western cordillera, leaving the necessary space for the formation of the altiplano basin. 2.Magmatic processes rooted in the asthenosphere might have contributed to uplift the plateau. 3.Climate has controlled the spatial distribution of erosion and sediment deposition, controlling the lubrication along the Nazca Plate subduction and hence influencing the transmission of tectonic forces into South America. 4.Climate also determined the formation of internal in shooting drainage (endorheism) and sediment trapping within the Andes, potentially blocking tectonic deformation in the area between the two cordilleras.

Communities in the Altiplano

• Achacachi
• Uros

Achacachi is a town on the Altiplano plateau in the South American Andes in Bolivia. ... Uros island Uros refers to a group of about 40 floating islets located in Lake Titicaca off Puno, Peru as well as to the pre-Inca people who fashioned them. ...

External links

• Photos of the Altiplano