The north and the west of the territory of the county is part of the Puna, it is it is a continuation of the Puna of Atacama, located to the west in Chile and of the Bolivian highland located to the north. It is an expression of the extensive solid precámbrico of Brasilia. This solid one surrounded of high mountains, with heights stockings of 3800m, it possesses two predominant relief forms: plateaus and mountains.
Santa Victoria's mountains, in the frontier with the county of it Jumps and of the Aguilar they mark the oriental end of this extension. In her they stand out diverse reliefs like the mountains of Cochinoca or of Incahuasi and lower regions, they are numerous internal basins without extension drainage and varied heights. In the bottom of those basins they are salares and saline as Salting of Cauchari or the lagoons of Guayatayoc or Pozuelos. To the west they get up the Snowy of San Pedro and the hills Tint, Black, Zapaleri and Vilama; all they overcome the height 5000 meters. The mountainous cords contain numerous valleys and gulches that have facilitated the establishment of the populations. The valleys are basins of tectonic sinking stuffed by recent silts and they constituted the establishment to be able to cultivate them. As long as the breeding of sheep and goats are characteristic of the gulches, these they are deep and narrow lengthened furrows located mountainous linkages between two. A river travels its deeper part and it was in fact the intense and continuous erosion of the waters those that worked the gulch along the time. They are the natural access roads of the Puna. One of the most famous is the gulch of Humahuaca that is born to 3.500 m of height and it descends up to 1200 meters toward the south. |
