One of the most extreme environments of the Earth is the driest and highest part of the Atacama desert, the Puna de Atacama highland and the volcanoes emerging above 6000 m from the plateau. The Ojos del Salado, which is the highest volcano of the Earth reaching the altitude of 6893 m, is located here. This extremely cold and dry mountain, towering on the Chilean-Argentine border, is just below the highest potential snowline of the Earth, which is around 7000 m in this region. Thus permanent ice coverage is absent from the peak despite its altitude. There are several other world records in this area; we can find the highest lakes and lake basins here, but the highest altitude by car, 6650 m, was reached here too.
This uninhabited high altitude extreme desert could be a great indicator of recent environmental processes. The possible future climate warming and the resultant ice melting could change the conditions of this environment substantially. These processes could be revealed by long-term field monitoring with a particular focus on the presence and changes of the permafrost, debris permanently cemented by frozen water, and liquid water.
Weather forecast for the Ojos del Salado on the Mountain Forecast site