Chile

temperate; desert in north; Mediterranean in central region; cool and damp in south

low coastal mountains, fertile central valley, rugged Andes in east

Southern South America, bordering the South Pacific Ocean, between Argentina and Peru

6,435 km

9,094 sq km (2022)

South America

severe earthquakes; active volcanism; tsunamis volcanism: significant volcanic activity due to more than three-dozen active volcanoes along the Andes Mountains; Lascar (5,592 m), which last erupted in 2007, is the most active volcano in the northern Chilean Andes; Llaima (3,125 m) in central Chile, which last erupted in 2009, is another of the country's most active; Chaiten's 2008 eruption forced major evacuations; other notable historically active volcanoes include Cerro Hudson, Calbuco, Copahue, Guallatiri, Llullaillaco, Nevados de Chillan, Puyehue, San Pedro, and Villarrica; see note 2 under "Geography - note"

note 1: Chile is the longest country north-to-south in the world, extending across 39 degrees of latitude note 2: Chile is one of the countries along the Ring of Fire, which is a belt bordering the Pacific Ocean that contains about 75% of the world's volcanoes and up to 90% of the world's earthquakes note 3: the Atacama Desert in the north of Chile is the driest desert in the world; Ojos del Salado (6,893 m) in the Atacama Desert is the highest active volcano in the world, Chile's tallest mountain, and the second-highest in the Western Hemisphere and the Southern Hemisphere; the volcano's small crater lake is the world's highest lake at 6,390 m

copper, timber, iron ore, nitrates, precious metals, molybdenum, hydropower

slightly smaller than twice the size of Montana

30 00 S, 71 00 W

90% of the population is located in the middle third of the country around the capital of Santiago; the far north, including the Atacama Desert, and the extreme south are relatively underpopulated