RAFAEL SALAS (1824-1906)
Parinacota (6,348 m - 20,827ft)
Pomerape (6,282m-20,610ft)
Chile - Bolivia border
In Bista del Pomerope and Parinacota, oil on canvas, 1870
The Mountains
Parinacota (6,348 m-20,827ft) or Parina Quta or Parinaquta and Pomerape (6,282m-20,610ft) are two twin massive dormant stratovolcanoes on the border of Chile and Bolivia. The range they are part of, Cerros de Payachata, means twin mountains and there are only those two peaks in the range.
It is usually counted as a sub-range in the Cordillera Occidental, part of the Payachata volcanic Pleistocene group. Both volcanoes are right on the Chilean - Bolivian border and can be climbed from either side. Their closest neighbor is Bolivia's highest mountain Sajama (6,542m-21,463ft) which isn't more than 20km away.
Parinacota is located in the extreme NE of Chile, where the country borders to Bolivia. The closest really large city is La Paz, the capital of Bolivia, which is about 300km and five hours away. Arica, in Chile is at the Pacific coast and is about 180 km far (and almost 5000 vertical meters!).
Parinacota's last eruptive phase has been dated using the helium surface exposure technique, which ties the eruption to 290AD ± 300 years.
One of the most dramatic eruptive events in the volcano's past was 8,000 years ago, when a major collapse of the edifice produced a 6 kmі (1.44 cubic miles) debris avalanche, which blocked nearby drainage patterns, creating Chungara Lake.
The volcano and Pomerape straddle the border between Sajama National Park (Bolivia) and Lauca National Park (Chile).
The painter
Rafael Salas was an important Ecuadorian landscape and genre painter of nineteenth century South America neoclassicism. He was the last son of the famous Salas artists dynasty among which his half brother Ramon Salas ( 1815-1880), the fist professor a t Academy of fine Arts of Quito and responsive for the taste of Costumbrismo; and above all their father Antonio Salas (1795-1860) a colonial artist specialized in religious themes like La Muerte de San José and La Negacion de San Pedro in the Cathedral of Quito.
2018 - Wandering Vertexes
Un blog de Francis Rousseau
