El Tatio is a geyser field located in the Andes Mountains of northern Chile at 4,320 metres above mean sea level. Various etymologies have been proposed for the name “El Tatio”, which might mean “oven” or “grandfather”.
El Tatio covers an area of 12 square miles, with geysers, boiling water fountains, fumaroles, hot springs, mud pools, and mud volcanoes seeping steam across its surreal expanse. It’s the highest geyser field in the world, the largest in the southern hemisphere, and the third largest in the world after Yellowstone in the U.S. and the Valley of Geysers on the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia.