Cerro Cabeza de Indio

Last updated
Cerro Cabeza de Indio
Cerro Cabeza de Indio.jpg
South aspect
Highest point
Elevation 2,230 m (7,316 ft) [1]
Prominence 148 m (486 ft) [1]
Parent peak Cerro Escudo [1]
Isolation 1.53 km (0.95 mi) [1]
Coordinates 50°56′45″S73°02′49″W / 50.945705°S 73.046812°W / -50.945705; -73.046812 [1]
Naming
Etymology Indian Head
Geography
Relief Map of Chile.jpg
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Cerro Cabeza de Indio
Location in Chile
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Cerro Cabeza de Indio
Cerro Cabeza de Indio (South America)
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Cerro Cabeza de Indio
Cerro Cabeza de Indio (Southern Patagonia)
Cerro Cabeza de Indio
Interactive map of Cerro Cabeza de Indio
Country Chile
Province Última Esperanza Province
Protected area Torres del Paine National Park
Parent range Andes
Cordillera Paine
Topo map IGM Paine (Hoja Paine)
Geology
Rock age Miocene
Rock type(s) Granite, Schist
Climbing
First ascent 1981 [2]

Cerro Cabeza de Indio is a mountain in the Magallanes Region of Chile.

Contents

Description

Cerro Cabeza de Indio is a 2,230-meter-elevation (7,316-foot) summit in the Cordillera Paine group of the Andes. The peak is located 100 kilometers (62 miles) north-northwest of Puerto Natales. The peak is situated at the head of Valle del Francés (French Valley) within Torres del Paine National Park. Precipitation runoff from the peak's slopes drains north to Dickson Lake and south to Nordenskjöld Lake which are both part of the Paine River watershed. Topographic relief is significant as the summit rises 1,280 meters (4,200 feet) above French Valley in two kilometers (1.6 miles), and 1,850 meters (6,070 feet) above Rio de los Perros in four kilometers (2.5 miles). The peak's descriptive Spanish toponym translates as "Head of Indian" which is seen in profile from the north near Dickson Lake. The nearest higher peak is Cerro Escudo, 1.53 kilometers (0.95 mile) to the east. [1]

Climate

Based on the Köppen climate classification, Cerro Cabeza de Indio is located in a tundra climate zone with long, cold winters, and short, cool summers. [3] Weather systems are forced upward by the mountains (orographic lift), causing moisture to drop in the form of rain and snow. This climate supports a small unnamed glacier on the south slope. The months of December through February offer the most favorable weather for visiting or climbing in this area, [4] however the region is characterized by low temperatures and strong winds throughout the year. [5]

Geology

The peak is composed of granite underlain by gray gabbro-diorite laccolith and the sedimentary rocks it intrudes, deeply eroded by glaciers. The hot granite that intruded parallel to the sedimentary rock converted the mudstone and sandstone into schist, a dark metamorphic rock. The steep, light colored faces are eroded from the tougher, vertically jointed granitic rocks, while the foothills and dark cap rocks are the sedimentary country rock, in this case flysch deposited in the Cretaceous and later folded. [6]

The radiometric age for the quartz diorite is 12 ± 2 million years by the rubidium-strontium method and 13 ± 1 million years by the potassium-argon method. [7] More precise ages of 12.59 ± 0.02 and 12.50 ± 0.02 million years for the earliest and latest identified phases of the intrusion, respectively, were achieved using Uranium–lead dating methods on single zircon crystals. [8] Basal gabbro and diorite were dated by a similar technique to 12.472 ± 0.009 to 12.431 ± 0.006 million years. [9] Thus, magma was intruded and crystallized over 162 ± 11 thousand years.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Cerro Cabeza de Indio". peakvisor.com. Retrieved January 3, 2026.
  2. ↑ Mountaineering in the Andes, Jill Neate, RGS-IBG Expedition Advisory Centre, 2nd edition, 1994, p. 31, Retrieved January 4, 2026.
  3. ↑ Peel, M. C.; Finlayson, B. L.; McMahon, T. A. (2007). "Updated world map of the Köppen-Geiger climate classification" (PDF). Hydrology and Earth System Sciences . 11 (5): 1633–1644. Bibcode:2007HESS...11.1633P. doi: 10.5194/hess-11-1633-2007 . Archived (PDF) from the original on 2019-12-02. Retrieved 2025-11-07.
  4. ↑ Best Time to Visit Torres Del Paine - Ideal Seasons and Months of the Year, Adventuretripr.com, Retrieved January 3, 2026.
  5. ↑ "Clima y vegetación Región de Magallanes y la Antártica Chilena" (in Spanish). Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional. Archived from the original on 29 June 2017. Retrieved 20 October 2015.
  6. ↑ Altenberger, Uwe; Oberhänsli, Roland; Putlitz, Benita; Wemmer, Klaus (1 July 2003). "Tectonic controls and Cenozoic magmatism at the Torres del Paine, southern Andes (Chile,51°10'S)". Revista Geológica de Chile. 30 (1): 65–81. doi: 10.4067/S0716-02082003000100005 .
  7. ↑ Martin Halpern "Regional Geochronology of Chile South of 50 degrees Latitude", Bulletin Geological Society of America, v. 84, p. 2410, 1973.
  8. ↑ Juergen Michel, Lukas Baumgartner, Benita Putlitz, Urs Schaltegger and Maria Ovtcharova, Incremental growth of the Patagonian Torres del Paine Laccolith over 90 k.y., Geology, 36(6):459–462, 2008.
  9. ↑ Leuthold, Julien; Müntener, Othmar; Baumgartner, Lukas; Putlitz, Benita; Ovtcharova, Maria; Schaltegger, Urs (2012). "Time resolved construction of a bimodal laccolith (Torres del Paine, Patagonia)". Earth and Planetary Science Letters. 325–326: 85–92. Bibcode:2012E&PSL.325...85L. doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2012.01.032.
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