Darwin most often refers to:
Tierra del Fuego is an archipelago off the southernmost tip of the South American mainland, across the Strait of Magellan. The archipelago consists of the main island, Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego, with an area of 48,100 km2 (18,572 sq mi), and a group of many islands, including Cape Horn and Diego Ramírez Islands. Tierra del Fuego is divided between Chile and Argentina, with the latter controlling the eastern half of the main island and the former the western half plus the islands south of Beagle Channel. The southernmost extent of the archipelago is at about latitude 55°S.
Mount Darwin is a peak in Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego forming part of the Cordillera Darwin, the southernmost range of the Andes, just to the north of the Beagle Channel.
The Cordillera Darwin is an extensive mountain range mantled by an ice field that is located in Chile.
The Zona Austral is one of the five natural regions into which CORFO divided continental Chile in 1950 corresponding to the Chilean portion of Patagonia. It is surrounded by the Zona Sur and the Chacao Channel to the north, the Pacific Ocean and Drake's Passage to the south and west, and the Andean mountains and Argentina to the east. If excluding Chiloé Archipelago Zona Austral covers all of Chilean Patagonia.
The Magallanes–Fagnano Fault is a continental transform fault. The fault marks a transform boundary between the Scotia Plate and the South American Plate, cutting across continental crust. It runs under the Strait of Magellan's western arm, Almirantazgo Sound and Fagnano Lake.
In geology ultrahigh-temperature metamorphism (UHT) is extreme crustal metamorphism with metamorphic temperatures exceeding 900 °C. Granulite-facies rocks metamorphosed at very high temperatures were identified in the early 1980s, although it took another decade for the geoscience community to recognize UHT metamorphism as a common regional phenomenon. Petrological evidence based on characteristic mineral assemblages backed by experimental and thermodynamic relations demonstrated that Earth's crust can attain and withstand very high temperatures (900–1000 °C) with or without partial melting.
The Andean orogeny is an ongoing process of orogeny that began in the Early Jurassic and is responsible for the rise of the Andes mountains. The orogeny is driven by a reactivation of a long-lived subduction system along the western margin of South America. On a continental scale the Cretaceous and Oligocene were periods of re-arrangements in the orogeny. Locally the details of the nature of the orogeny varies depending on the segment and the geological period considered.
The Famatinian orogeny is an orogeny that predates the rise of the Andes and that took place in what is now western South America during the Paleozoic, leading to the formation of the Famatinian orogen also known as the Famatinian belt. The Famatinian orogeny lasted from the Late Cambrian to at least the Late Devonian and possibly the Early Carboniferous, with orogenic activity peaking about 490 to 460 million years ago. The orogeny involved metamorphism and deformation in the crust and the eruption and intrusion of magma along a Famatinian magmatic arc that formed a chain of volcanoes. The igneous rocks of the Famatinian magmatic arc are of calc-alkaline character and include gabbros, tonalites and granodiorites. The youngest igneous rocks of the arc are granites.
The Coastal Batholith of central Chile is a group of plutons in the Chilean Coast Range of Central Chile appearing contiguously from 33° S to 38° S. At a latitude of 40° S an outlying group of plutons of the batholith appear in a more eastward position in the Andes.
The Choapa Metamorphic Complex or ChMC is a large coherent but varied group of metamorphic rocks –in other words a geologic complex– that crops out in the Chilean Coast Range in northern Chile. The rocks of the formation have been metamorphosed under greenschist facies metamorphism. After the main phase of metamorphism the rocks of the complex were heated by plutons in the Jurassic. It has been suggested that the protoliths of the formation were similar and equivalent to the Paleozoic-aged Puerto Manso Formation.
The Eastern Andes Metamorphic Complex is a large coherent but varied group of metamorphic and sedimentary rocks –in other words a geologic complex– that crops out in the eastern Patagonian Andes in Chile and Argentina. The metamorphic grade of rocks varies but does not exceed greenschist facies, the only exception to this are rocks near plutons affected by contact metamorphism. The sedimentary protoliths sedimented in the Late Paleozoic. The pressures and temperatures of metamorphism of the Eastern Andes Metamorphic Complex are different those usually expected from accretionary complexes. The sedimentary protoliths of the Eastern Andes Metamorphic Complex were likely deposited in a passive continental margin.
The Puerto Edén Igneous and Metamorphic Complex is a large coherent but varied geologic complex of metamorphic and igneous rocks that crops out in the Fjords and channels of Chile of the Magallanes Region. The rocks of the complex include migmatites, plutonic rocks and high-grade metamorphic rocks. To the west the Puerto Edén Igneous and Metamorphic Complex bounds the South Patagonian Batholith. Mineralogical observations and geothermobarometric calculations indicate high-temperature and low-pressure conditions for an event of metamorphism and partial melting of metapelites in the Late Jurassic.
La Negra Formation is a geologic formation of Jurassic age, composed chiefly of volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks, located in the Coast Range of northern Chile. The formation originated in marine and continental (terrestrial) conditions, and bears evidence of submarine volcanism as well as large explosive eruptions. The volcanism of La Negra Formation is thought to have lasted for about five million years.
Tobífera Formation is a volcano-sedimentary formation of Middle to Late Jurassic age. The formation is crops out in the Magallanes Region in southern Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego of Chile, the Santa Cruz Province of southern Argentina, and in the subsurface of the Malvinas Basin offshore Argentina and the Falkland Islands.
Tierra del Fuego Igneous and Metamorphic Complex is a geological basement complex known from boreholes in northern Tierra del Fuego. The complex is made up of foliated igneous rocks of Cambrian age including orthogneiss. It underlies unconformably the Jurassic Tobífera Formation. The protoliths of Cordillera Darwin Metamorphic Complex are unrelated to Tierra del Fuego Igneous and Metamorphic Complex despite present-day proximity.
Fueguino is a volcanic field in Chile. The southernmost volcano in the Andes, it lies on Tierra del Fuego's Cook Island and also extends over nearby Londonderry Island. The field is formed by lava domes, pyroclastic cones, and a crater lake.
The geology of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands is part of the largely submerged Scotia Ridge. The island of South Georgia is unusual among oceanic islands for having pre-Cretaceous sedimentary rocks underlying much of the island and a significant portion of felsic igneous rocks. Two-thirds of the island consists of intensely folded flysch, capped with Aptian age fossils, tuff and greywacke in the Cumberland Bay Series. The series includes slate, phyllite, conglomerate, siltstone and sandstone. In the west are basalt flows, pillowed spilite, prehnite and trachyandesite, as well as shale with radiolarite fossils.
The geology of Argentina includes ancient Precambrian basement rock affected by the Grenville orogeny, sediment filled basins from the Mesozoic and Cenozoic as well as newly uplifted areas in the Andes.
The geology of Peru includes ancient Proterozoic rocks, deformed by the Grenville orogeny, Paleozoic and Mesozoic volcanic and sedimentary rocks and numerous basins and the Andes Mountains formed in the Cenozoic.
