Natural regions of Chile

Norte Grande has Chile's highest mountains including Ojos del Salado (6,891 m) but host also the Altiplano and puna high plateaus.

The region has semi-arid climate, characterized by the transition from the Atacama Desert to the Mediterranean Matorral vegetation.

The coast range and the Andes merges in this zone leaving no space for the Intermediate depression which is "replaced" by several transversal (east-west) valleys.

The lack of an intermediate depression and absence of volcanic activity are believed to be the result of the flat-slab subduction of the Juan Fernández Ridge.

The former Patagonian Ice Sheet have eroded the coast range so that it now of islands and is not present south of Taitao Peninsula.