Vinicunca, better known as Rainbow Mountain, in Peru, is a high-altitude section of the Andes Mountains. What makes this mountain range unique, hence its nickname, is the array of colors that it showcases to its visitors. This natural phenomenon attracts around 365,000 visitors each year.
If you take on the challenging 16,522 ft (5,036 m) hike, you’ll see the colorful landscape yourself, beaming with red, green, yellow, and purple colors.
The Rainbow Mountain
While the mountain looks like it was painted by a talented artist, rocks and minerals act as natural paintbrushes. The red to rust colors on the mountain come from claystone and siltstone rich in iron oxides. The mountain’s shades of green are from chlorite-bearing clays and phyllosilicates with iron and magnesium.
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We can’t forget about the Rainbow Mountain’s other natural colors. Its yellow and mustard colors are from limonite and sulfate minerals, while the White to light gray colors are due to quartz-rich sandstones. The mix of purples and browns comes from the mountain’s marls and iron-rich clays with varying oxidation states.
Rainbow Mountain in Peru is millions of years old. It’s the rocks and minerals that offer the colorful display, thanks to different environmental conditions over the years.
