"The name Licancabur is a Hispanization of a Kunza word used by the Atacama Indians to designate the volcano and meaning "mountain of the people", from lican "people" and cabur "mountain".
Licancabur is located southwest of Laguna Verde and between the Juriques and Sairecabur volcanoes. It dominates the landscape of the Atacama salt flats. It belongs mainly to Chile, only two-thirds of the northeast slope belonging to Bolivia.
The summit and its crater are located in Chile, 1 kilometer from the border. Its width is about 400 meters and it contains a crater lake 90 meters long by 70 meters wide and 8 meters deep, one of the highest lakes in the world. During archaeological digs in 1982, Johan Reinhard and Charles Brush along with three other divers explored the lake, setting an altitude diving record. The lake is frozen in winter and, despite very hostile conditions (intense UV radiation, low atmospheric pressure, negative temperature), is home to extremophile planktonic fauna, in particular diatoms. This environment is undoubtedly very close to that which reigned on Mars, when water was present on the surface of the planet, hence the interest shown in this lake by the scientific community.
Very close to the volcano, to the west, is the Chilean village and tourist center of San Pedro de Atacama.
The volcano's last eruption produced large andesitic lava flows that extend up to 6 kilometers along the southwest and northwest slopes. Older lavas have been found up to 15 kilometers from the summit as well as traces of pyroclastic flows with ignimbrite deposits.
Numerous Inca ruins are present on the slopes of the volcano up to its summit, the most important at its base. They are proof that the volcano was climbed in pre-Columbian times and has not experienced a major eruption in the past 500 to 1,000 years.
The first modern ascent was made in November 1884 by Severo Titichoca, an Indian from San Pedro de Atacama."