Quñuqqucha

The Laguna Conococha ( Quechua Coni cocha "hot water") is a lake in the Andes mountains of South America in the northwestern Peru.

The Laguna Conococha located in the Ancash region at an altitude of 4,050 m above sea level on the road connecting the Callejón de Huaylas and Chiquián.

The Laguna is seen as a source lake of the Rio Santa, which flows from here 200 km between the Cordillera Negra and the Cordillera Blanca snowy north.

The lake itself is fed by small tributaries of the Cordillera Negra to the west and the Cordillera Blanca in the east. Main tributary of Laguna Conococha is the Río Tuco, the source in the Laguna Tuco at 9 ° 56 ' 40 "S, 77 ° 11' 44" W 9.9444444444444 - 77.1955555555565000, located about 5,000 meters above sea level before the glacier tongues of Nevado de Tuco.

Despite its height, the lake is rich in fish, it can be found here, among others, salmon and trout. In 1996, discovered in the Laguna Conococha the researchers Antonio Salas and W. Ulrich Sinsch on behalf of the Museo de Historia Natural, Lima a new subspecies of Telmatobius - frog, which differs from all other Peruvian Telmatobius species.

On the western shore of the lake, the village Conococha where cross roads to Lima, Pativilca, Huaraz and Chiquián is.

The copper and zinc mining company Antamina is alleged to have since commissioning in 2001 lowered the water level of Laguna through their activity and disrupted the ecological balance of the lake to have also contaminated the region with mineral residues.

• Lake in South America
• See in Peru
• Ancash
• Water system Pacific Ocean