Ojos del Salado Spanish, comes from the enormous deposits of salt that, in the form of lagoons or “eyes”, appear in its glaciers. An international highway between Chile and Argentina runs north of the mountain. Ojos del Salado along with several other high volcanoes such as El Muerto, El Solo, Nevado Incahuasi and Nevado Tres Cruces lies at the southern end of the Central Volcanic Zone of the Andes. Volcanic activity in the region commenced 26 million years ago in the Cordillera Claudio Gay, at the same time as the neighbouring Maricunga Belt volcanoes were active. Starting 18 million years ago, local subduction
Ojos del Salado of transverse valleys. Ojos del Salado like other major neighbouring mountains is a complex of lava domes and lava flows, with the main summit surrounded by peripheral domes such as El Solo and El Fraile and many other lateral centres. Fumaroles are encountered at the summit of Ojos del Salado within a depression. Potassium-argon dating has yielded ages of 1.2 ± 0.3 million years ago and less than 1 million years ago from rocks north of Ojos del Salado. There are glaciers on the mountain, in the crater and in the form of penitentes which reach heights of . Other