[1] Laguna Hedionda is located in the Cordillera Occidental area of the Bolivian Altiplano of the central Andes, which is a volcanic landscape where many small closed lake basins have been noted.

It is located just north of lake Ch'iyar Quta in the central Andes mountains at an elevation of 4,121 metres (13,520 ft).

[7] Diatom studies were carried out in the lake basins of the central Andes, which included the lake in the Lípez area, to determine the past lacustrine depth based on basin morphology, stratigraphy, sediment samples, altitude and diatom ecology.

From these studies, it has been inferred that the hydrology of the closed basins of the Lípez (including several lakes such as Laguna Hedionda, Cañapa, Ch'iyar Quta, Honda, Pujito, Ramaditas and Ballivian) have a direct relationship with the regional climatic conditions since their catchment area is small compared to other lakes in the Coipasa-Uyuni basin.

[2] The lake water has a high salinity level of 66–80% and therefore is rich in invertebrate zooplankton and benthos, such as Artemia.

[9] Set in the backdrop of snow-covered mountains, the lake, like its neighbours, is famous for a variety of high Andean waterfowl, particularly flamingos (mostly white for the reason that algae that creates the pink colour is comparatively less in the lake waters[7]), and other bird species such as ducks and the Andean goose, and herds of vicuña are also reported.