Chacaltaya#Observatory
{{short description|Mountain in Bolivia}}
{{Infobox mountain
| name = Chacaltaya
| photo = Chacaltaya summit Oct 2012.jpg
| photo_caption = Chacaltaya peak, October 2012
| elevation_m = 5421
| elevation_ref =
| prominence_m =
658
| map = Bolivia
| map_caption = Location of Chacaltaya in Bolivia
| label_position = right
| location = La Paz Department, Bolivia
| range = Cordillera Real, Andes
| coordinates = {{coord|16|21|12|S|68|07|53|W|type:mountain_region:BO-L_scale:100000|format=dms|display=inline,title}}
| range_coordinates =
| topo =
| type = Fold mountain
| age =
| first_ascent =
| easiest_route = Walk up
}}
Chacaltaya (Mollo language for "bridge of winds" or "winds meeting point"{{citation needed|date=September 2016}}, Aymara for "cold road"{{Dubious |Translation of "Chacaltaya" |reason=The bloomberg.com source says it means "Ice bridge". Which is correct? |date=September 2015}}) is a mountain in the Cordillera Real, one of the mountain ranges of the Cordillera Oriental, itself a range of the Bolivian Andes. Its elevation is {{convert|5421|m|sp=us|0}}. Chacaltaya's glacier — which was as old as 18,000 years — had an area of {{convert|0.22|km2|sqmi|abbr=on}} in 1940, which had been reduced to {{convert|0.01|km2|sqmi|abbr=on}} in 2007 and was completely gone by 2009.{{cite news |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aijxVBCguhJM |work=Bloomberg |title=Vanishing Bolivian Glacier Ends Highest Ski Run (Update1) |date=2009-08-05}}{{cite news |title= Farewell to a melting glacier |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6496429.stm |work=BBC News |date=2007-04-03|access-date=2007-07-13}}{{cite news |last=Painter |first=James |title=Huge Bolivian glacier disappears |work=BBC New |date=2009-05-12 |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8046540.stm |access-date=2015-06-24}} Half of the meltdown, as measured by volume, took place before 1980.{{cite journal |title=Glacier Evolution in the Tropical Andes during the Last Decades of the 20th Century: Chacaltaya, Bolivia, and Antizana, Ecuador |jstor=4315067 |journal=Ambio |date=November 2000 |issn=0044-7447 |volume=29 |pages=416–422 |first1=Bernard |last1=Francou |first2=Edson |last2=Ramirez |first3=Bolivar |last3=Cáceres |first4=Javier |last4=Mendoza|issue=7 |doi=10.1579/0044-7447-29.7.416 |bibcode=2000Ambio..29..416F |s2cid=16460312 }} The final meltdown after 1980, due to missing precipitation and the warm phase of El Niño, resulted in the glacier's disappearance in 2009.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/14/science/earth/14bolivia.html|title=In Bolivia, Water and Ice Tell of Climate Change|last=Rosenthal|first=Elisabeth|date=2009-12-13|work=The New York Times|access-date=2019-09-28|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}} The glacier was located about {{convert|30|km|sp=us}} from La Paz, near Huayna Potosí mountain.
Ski area
Image:Chacaltaya Ski Resort.jpg
The glacier on Chacaltaya served as Bolivia's only ski resort. It was the world's highest lift-served ski area and the northernmost in South America.
The rope tow, the first in South America, was built in 1939 using an automobile engine; it was housed in the site's original clapboard lodge, and is now inoperable. The road to the base of the {{convert|200|m|adj=on|sp=us}} drop is reached by a narrow road, also built in the 1930s. Traditionally, due to the extreme cold weather, the lift operated exclusively on weekends from November to March. Since 2009, skiing is restricted to a {{convert|600|ft|adj=on}} stretch that sometimes receives sufficient snowfall for a run during the winter.{{cite news|title=Bolivia's Only Ski Resort Is Facing a Snowless Future |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/02/world/americas/02bolivia.html |work=Chacaltaya Journal |publisher=The New York Times |date=2007-02-02 |access-date=2009-05-10 |first=Simon |last=Romero}} The mountain is also popular with amateur mountaineers, as the road stops only {{convert|200|m}} from the summit. Guinness World Records considers the ski resort restaurant to be the highest restaurant in the world.{{cite web|url=http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/highest-restaurant|title=Highest restaurant|publisher=Guinness World Records|access-date=20 November 2017}}
Retreat of Chacaltaya glacier
Scientists at the Mount Chacaltaya Laboratory started measuring the Chacaltaya glacier in the 1990s. Predicted at that time to survive until 2015, the glacier melted at a faster rate than expected. By 2009, it had been reduced to a few small patches of ice and snow near the top of the mountain.{{cite web |title=Chacaltaya, Bolivia: How the world's highest ski resort disappeared |date=5 June 2017 |website=The Whiteroom |url=https://www.snow-forecast.com/whiteroom/chacaltaya-bolivia-worlds-highest-ski-resort/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191230180307/https://www.snow-forecast.com/whiteroom/chacaltaya-bolivia-worlds-highest-ski-resort/ |archive-date=30 December 2019}} (Diagram and photos of development)
Many Bolivians on the Altiplano and in two of Bolivia's main cities — La Paz and El Alto — depend on melt water from Andean glaciers for part of their water supply during the dry season. The World Bank has warned that many glaciers in the tropical portion of the Andes are expected to disappear within 20 years.{{clarify|of when?|date=March 2018}} This will threaten the water supplies of nearly 80 million people as well as the future generation of hydropower. Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru depend on hydropower for about half their electricity.
Observatory
File:Chacaltaya AWS summit april2016.jpg
Located at {{convert|5240|m|sp=us}}, the Mount Chacaltaya Laboratory began as a weather station in 1942.{{cite web |title=The Mount Chacaltaya Laboratory: Past, present, and future |first=Francesco |last=Zaratti |publisher=Atmospheric Physics Laboratory |location=La Paz, Bolivia |year=2009 |url=http://www.evk2cnr.org/cms/files/evk2cnr.org/03_ZARATTI%20SHARE%20conference.pdf |access-date=2011-04-19}} It is an important site for gamma ray research {{cite book |last1=Wamsteker |first1=W. |last2=Albrecht |first2=Rudolf |last3=Haubold |first3=Hans J. |title=Developing basic space science world-wide: a decade of UN/ESA workshops |year=2004 |location=Dordrecht, Boston |publisher=Kluwer Academic Publishers |isbn=978-1-4020-2519-8 |oclc= 56105246}} and was the site in the 1940s of the first observations of pions.
File:Chacaltaya Astrophysical Observatory (04).JPG
The Chacaltaya (Astrophysical) Observatory belongs to the Universidad Mayor de San Andrés and it is operated in collaboration with other universities worldwide. It hosts a cosmic ray research group, and since 2011 the Chacaltaya Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW) station. The GAW station is one of the few monitoring sites of Essential Climate Variables (meteorological variables, aerosols, and greenhouse gases) in the Southern Hemisphere.
Climate
{{Weather box|width=auto
|metric first=y
|single line=y
|collapsed = Y
|location = Chacaltaya, elevation {{convert|5188|m|ft|abbr=on}}
| Jan record high C = 8.0
| Feb record high C = 10.5
| Mar record high C = 12.0
| Apr record high C = 8.3
| May record high C = 8.5
| Jun record high C = 7.7
| Jul record high C = 6.5
| Aug record high C = 9.7
| Sep record high C = 6.9
| Oct record high C = 11.0
| Nov record high C = 10.1
| Dec record high C = 10.0
| year record high C =
| Jan record low C = -13.7
| Feb record low C = -12.5
| Mar record low C = -15.0
| Apr record low C = -8.7
| May record low C = -13.4
| Jun record low C = -13.8
| Jul record low C = -12.9
| Aug record low C = -13.5
| Sep record low C = -15.9
| Oct record low C = -13.6
| Nov record low C = -12.6
| Dec record low C = -11.6
| year record low C =
|Jan high C = 3.8
|Feb high C = 3.1
|Mar high C = 4.0
|Apr high C = 3.6
|May high C = 3.2
|Jun high C = 2.7
|Jul high C = 2.3
|Aug high C = 3.4
|Sep high C = 4.1
|Oct high C = 5.7
|Nov high C = 5.1
|Dec high C = 4.7
| year high C =
|Jan mean C = 0.3
|Feb mean C = -0.2
|Mar mean C = 0.2
|Apr mean C = -0.1
|May mean C = -0.9
|Jun mean C = -1.5
|Jul mean C = -2.7
|Aug mean C = -1.1
|Sep mean C = -0.4
|Oct mean C = 0.9
|Nov mean C = 1.0
|Dec mean C = 0.8
| year mean C =
|Jan low C = -3.8
|Feb low C = -4.0
|Mar low C = -3.9
|Apr low C = -3.8
|May low C = -5.2
|Jun low C = -5.8
|Jul low C = -7.7
|Aug low C = -5.6
|Sep low C = -5.5
|Oct low C = -4.3
|Nov low C = -3.8
|Dec low C = -3.8
| year low C =
|precipitation colour = green
|Jan precipitation mm = 81.1
|Feb precipitation mm = 80.7
|Mar precipitation mm = 68.2
|Apr precipitation mm = 33.9
|May precipitation mm = 22.7
|Jun precipitation mm = 4.6
|Jul precipitation mm = 3.4
|Aug precipitation mm = 9.7
|Sep precipitation mm = 38.3
|Oct precipitation mm = 29.5
|Nov precipitation mm = 38.7
|Dec precipitation mm = 65.0
|year precipitation mm =
| Jan precipitation days = 14.7
| Feb precipitation days = 13.6
| Mar precipitation days = 10.3
| Apr precipitation days = 5.6
| May precipitation days = 3.4
| Jun precipitation days = 0.9
| Jul precipitation days = 1.3
| Aug precipitation days = 3.0
| Sep precipitation days = 7.7
| Oct precipitation days = 7.5
| Nov precipitation days = 8.1
| Dec precipitation days = 11.1
| year precipitation days =
| Jan humidity = 84.5
| Feb humidity = 86.7
| Mar humidity = 83.7
| Apr humidity = 79.0
| May humidity = 76.0
| Jun humidity = 68.0
| Jul humidity = 69.1
| Aug humidity = 67.8
| Sep humidity = 72.4
| Oct humidity = 75.6
| Nov humidity = 78.6
| Dec humidity = 78.4
| year humidity =
|source 1 = Servicio Nacional de Meteorología e Hidrología de Bolivia
{{cite web
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180607025840/http://senamhi.gob.bo/index.php/sismet
| archive-date = 7 June 2018
| url = http://senamhi.gob.bo/index.php/sismet
| title = Base de datos Sistema Meteorológico–SISMET
| publisher = Servicio Nacional de Meteorología e Hidrología de Bolivia
| language = es
| access-date = 12 June 2024}}
{{cite web
| url = https://www.scribd.com/document/542708736/Indices-Agrometeorologicos-149-Estaciones
| title = índices climáticos para 149 estaciones meteorológicas en Bolivia
| publisher = Servicio Nacional de Meteorología e Hidrología de Bolivia
| language = es
| access-date = 12 June 2024}}
}}
See also
References
{{Reflist|refs=
{{cite news |title=Bolivia's Chacaltaya glacier is gone
|journal=Miami Herald
|via=McClatchy DC
|first=John
|last=Enders
|access-date=2015-09-18
|date=May 2009
|url=http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/article24537565.html
}}}}
External links
{{Commons category|Chacaltaya}}
- [http://www.chacaltaya.edu.bo/Chacaltaya GAW station]{{Dead link|date=November 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
- [http://www.altitudeclinic.com/pyramid1.html Chacaltaya Glass Chamber Pyramid] of the [http://www.altitudeclinic.com/index.html High Altitude Pathology Institute (Clinica IPPA)]
- [https://archive.today/20130223105619/http://www.altitude.org/apex3.php Apex 3 medical research expedition]
- [http://www.chacaltaya.umsa.bo Chacaltaya Cosmic Rays observatory]
- {{Wikivoyage inline|Chacaltaya}}
{{Portal bar|Bolivia|Astronomy|Stars|Outer space|Education|Science}}
{{Authority control}}
Category:Ski areas and resorts in Bolivia
Category:Astronomical observatories in Bolivia
Category:Mountains of La Paz Department (Bolivia)