Laguna Verde and Licancabur Volcano, Bolivia

The salt lakes of Laguna Verde (green lake) and Laguna Blanco are located on the Chilean/Bolivian border and surrounded by the extinct volcanoes of Licancabur, Sairecabur and Juriques. Licancabur was sacred to the Acatamenos people who inhabited the area from 500 AD and the Inca later adopted the sacred mountain into their own mythology and Sun worship practices. The small crater with its internal lake are recorded to have had structures around the summit and burials and buildings have been recorded on the side of the volcano. The shadows of the peaks supposedly coalesce on the solstices and this has been connected with fertility of the earth in local folklore and mythology. Laguna Verde gets its emerald colour from arsenic and other minerals leaching out and the intensity of colour changes depending on sediment movement and lighting. Elevation model from SRTM 30 metre data at Open Topography Satellite image overlay dated 4/5/19 from Sentinel 2-B L1C satellite