General Carrera Lake | |
---|---|
Buenos Aires Lake Lake Buenos Aires | |
Location | Lago Buenos Aires Department, Santa Cruz Province, Argentina / General Carrera Province, Aysén del General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo Region, Chile, in Patagonia |
Coordinates | 46°26′15″S71°42′54″W / 46.43750°S 71.71500°W [1] |
Type | Moraine dammed |
Primary inflows | Soler, Los Antiguos, Jeinemeni, Ibáñez, San Martín, Delta |
Primary outflows | Bertrand Lake and then Baker River (Pacific Ocean) Deseado River (Atlantic Ocean) |
Catchment area | 14,861 km2 (5,738 sq mi) |
Basin countries | Argentina, Chile |
Surface area | 1,850 km2 (710 sq mi) |
Average depth | 400 m (1,300 ft) |
Max. depth | 586 m (1,923 ft) |
Water volume | 740 km3 (180 cu mi) |
Shore length1 | 707 km (439 mi) |
Surface elevation | 217 m (712 ft) |
Frozen | never |
Settlements | Chile Chico, Puerto Ingeniero Ibáñez, Puerto Guadal, Los Antiguos |
References | [1] |
1 Shore length is not a well-defined measure. |
General Carrera Lake (Chilean part, officially renamed in 1959) [2] or Lake Buenos Aires (Argentine part) is a deep lake located in Patagonia and shared by Argentina and Chile. Both names are internationally accepted, while the autochthonous name of the lake is Chelenko, which means "stormy waters" in Aonikenk. [3] Another historical name is Coluguape from Mapuche, a derivative of this name is applied to Colhué Huapí Lake after Argentine explorer Francisco Moreno reached this lake in 1876 conflating it with Coluguape (General Carrera Lake). [4]
The lake is of glacial origin and is surrounded by the Andes mountain range. The lake drains to the Pacific Ocean on the west through the Baker River. During the last glaciation the lake drained to the Atlantic through Deseado River. [4]
The weather in this area of Chile and Argentina is generally cold and humid. But the lake itself has a sunny microclimate, a weather pattern enjoyed by the few settlements along the lake, such as Puerto Guadal, Fachinal, Mallín Grande, Puerto Murta, Puerto Río Tranquilo, Puerto Sánchez, Puerto Ingeniero Ibáñez and Chile Chico in Chile, and Los Antiguos and Perito Moreno in Argentina.
The area near the coast of the lake was first inhabited by criollos and European immigrants between 1900 and 1925. In 1971 and 1991, eruptions of the Hudson Volcano severely affected the local economy, especially that of sheep farming. A car ferry operates between Puerto Ingeniero Ibáñez and Chile Chico in the Chilean sector of the lake. The lake is known as a trout and salmon fishing destination.
The lake has a surface of 1,850 km2 (710 sq mi) of which 970 square kilometres (370 sq mi) are in the Chilean Aysén del General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo Region, and 880 square kilometres (340 sq mi) in the Argentine Santa Cruz Province, making it the biggest lake in Chile, and the fourth largest in Argentina. In its western basin, Lake Gen. Carrera has 586 m (1,923 ft) maximum depth. [5]
The lake occupies a continental-scale graben formed by SWS-ENE normal faults that have resulted in down-dropping the bottom of the lake to 350 meters (1,150 ft) below mean sea level. [6] Preservation of younger lithostratigraphic units within the graben form reverse stratigraphy with older units exposed at higher topographic elevations to the south. The graben channeled mountain glaciers which formed terminal moraine helping to modify the present-day shape of the lake. The tectonic activity that formed the depression can be inferred to subduction of the triple joint that has occurred over the past 20 million years, as indicated by ripple marks in volcaniclastic sediments observed along the southern shoreline. There is some speculation on whether the tectonics and crustal heat flow in the lake area are influenced by the asthenospheric window that exists beneath the crust in this region of Patagonia. [7]
The Marble Caves, Marble Chapel, and Marble Cathedral are unusual geological formations located on the shoreline midway along the lake's length. They represent a group of caverns, columns, and tunnels formed in monoliths of marble. The Marble Caves have been formed by wave action over the last 6,200 years. [8]
Patagonia is a geographical region that encompasses the southern end of South America, governed by Argentina and Chile. The region comprises the southern section of the Andes Mountains with lakes, fjords, temperate rainforests, and glaciers in the west and deserts, tablelands, and steppes to the east. Patagonia is bounded by the Pacific Ocean on the west, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and many bodies of water that connect them, such as the Strait of Magellan, the Beagle Channel, and the Drake Passage to the south.
Santa Cruz Province is a province of Argentina, located in the southern part of the country, in Patagonia. It borders Chubut Province to the north, and Chile to the west and south, with an Atlantic coast on its east. Santa Cruz is the second-largest province of the country, and the least densely populated in mainland Argentina.
The Aysén del General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo Region, often shortened to Aysén Region or Aisén, is one of Chile's 16 first order administrative divisions. Although the third largest in area, the region is Chile's most sparsely populated region with a population of 102,317 as of 2017. The capital of the region is Coyhaique, the region's former namesake. The region's current namesake is the former President of Chile, General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo.
The Patagonian Ice Sheet was a large elongated and narrow ice sheet centered in the southern Andes that existed during the Llanquihue glaciation. The ice sheet covered all of Chile south of Puerto Montt plus the western fringes of Argentine Patagonia.
Nahuel Huapi Lake is an Andean lake in the lake region of northern Patagonia between the provinces of Río Negro and Neuquén, in Argentina. The lake has a northwest-southeast elongated shape and complex geography with several branches, peninsulas and islands. The city of Bariloche is on the southern shore of the lake and the town of Villa La Angostura lies on its northwestern shores. The lake is wholly inside Nahuel Huapi National Park. It is one of the largest lakes in northern Patagonia. It is drained by Limay River and it is part of the watershed of Negro River which discharges into the South Atlantic.
Chile Chico is a town in General Carrera Province, Aisén Region, Patagonia, Chile. It is located on the south shore of General Carrera Lake. Chile Chico, which has around 3,000 inhabitants, is the eponymous capital of the commune and capital of the General Carrera Province of the Aysén Region.
The lake known as O'Higgins in Chile and San Martín in Argentina is located around coordinates 48°50′S72°36′W in Patagonia, between the Aysén del General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo Region and the Santa Cruz Province.
The Tehuelche people, also called the Aónikenk, are an Indigenous people from eastern Patagonia in South America. In the 18th and 19th centuries the Tehuelche were influenced by Mapuche people, and many adopted a horseriding lifestyle. Once a nomadic people, the lands of the Tehuelche were colonized in the 19th century by Argentina and Chile, gradually disrupting their traditional economies. The establishment of large sheep farming estates in Patagonia was particularly detrimental to the Tehuelche. Contact with outsiders also brought in infectious diseases ushering deadly epidemics among Tehuelche tribes. Most existing members of the group currently reside in cities and towns of Argentine Patagonia.
The Baker River is a river located in the Aysén del General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo Region of the Chilean Patagonia. It is Chile's largest river in terms of volume of water. The river flows out of Bertrand Lake, which is fed by General Carrera Lake. It runs along the east side of the Northern Patagonian Ice Field and empties into the Pacific Ocean, near the town of Caleta Tortel. The river forms a delta, dividing into two major arms, of which only the northernmost one is navigable.
The Ibáñez River is a river of Chile located in the Aysén del General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo Region. It has its origin in the skirts of Hudson volcano and flows south-east through the Andes into the General Carrera Lake. The river borders the south side of Cerro Castillo National Reserve, home to Cerro Castillo.
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.
Ferrocarriles Patagónicos was an Argentine State-owned railway company that built and operated several rail lines in Patagonia region. FP were part of the Argentine State Railway created in 1909 during the presidency of José Figueroa Alcorta.
Lake Musters and Lake Colhué Huapi form the terminal stage of the Senguerr River endorheic basin, located in the patagonic central region of Argentina in the south of Chubut province. Closest populated area is Sarmiento, an 8,000 inhabitant former Welsh immigrant colony. The lakes gave their names to the Mustersan and Colhuehuapian South American land mammal ages.
Pico Truncado is a town and municipality in Santa Cruz Province in southern Argentina. In 1921, the village's railway station was the site of one of the few open engagements between the Argentine Army and anarchist strikers at the time of the events known as Patagonia rebelde, where the army suffered its only fatality of the campaign.
Patagonia Rebelde was the name given to the uprising and violent suppression of a rural workers' strike in the Argentine province of Santa Cruz in Patagonia between 1920 and 1922. The uprising was put down by Colonel Héctor Benigno Varela's 10th Cavalry Regiment of the Argentine Army under the orders of President Hipólito Yrigoyen. Approximately 300-1,500 rural workers were shot and killed by the 10th Cavalry Regiment in the course of the operations, many of them executed by firing squads after surrendering. Most of the executed were Spanish and Chilean workers who had sought refuge in Argentina's Patagonia after their strike in the city of Puerto Natales in southern Chile in 1919 was crushed by the Chilean authorities, at the cost of four carabiniers killed and the offices of their union were burned down by the civilians, policemen and the militaries in Punta Arenas on July 27, 1920. At least two Argentine soldiers, three local policemen and a number of ranch owners and their relatives also died during the strife. According to the versions well publicized by the army and the landowners, several of the captured women were raped in the uprising as the rebel forces fought for control of the territory. These versions have been widely discredited. The most detailed narrative of these events is that by Argentine journalist Osvaldo Bayer, summarized in English by Bruce Chatwin in 1976.
The Golfo San Jorge Basin is a hydrocarbon-rich sedimentary basin located in eastern Patagonia, Argentina. The basin covers the entire San Jorge Gulf and an inland area west of it, having one half located in Santa Cruz Province and the other in Chubut Province. The northern boundary of the basin is the North Patagonian Massif while the Deseado Massif forms the southern boundary of the basin. The basin has largely developed under condition of extensional tectonics, including rifting.
The Lago Colhué Huapí Formation is a Late Cretaceous geologic formation of the Chubut Group in the Golfo San Jorge Basin in Patagonia, Argentina. The formation, named after Lake Colhué Huapí, is overlain by the Salamanca Formation of the Río Chico Group and in some areas by the Laguna Palacios Formation.
Casimiro Biguá was a 19th-century Tehuelche cacique in Patagonia. He opposed the Chilean colonization of the Strait of Magellan and in the 1860s he entered an alliance with Argentine authorities. In a bid to establish Argentine sovereignty over the strait Argentine "ad-hoc agent" Luis Piedra Buena brought Biguá to Buenos Aires where met President Bartolomé Mitre and was declared lieutenant colonel of the Argentine Army and granted a salary accordingly. In 1866 he signed a treaty with Argentine authorities where the Tehuelche were recognized as Argentine citizens and Argentine sovereignty up to the strait of Magellan was declared. The influence of Casimiro Biguá in political affairs declined in the late 1860s.
Lake Musters is located in the central Patagonian region of the Argentine Republic, south of the province of Chubut, and together with Lake Colhué Huapi forms the terminal phase of the current endorheic basin of the Senguerr River. Both lakes are located in the Valle de Sarmiento.
Colhué Huapi is an intermittent lake located in the central Patagonian region of the Argentine Republic, south of the province of Chubut, and together with Lake Musters forms the terminal phase of the current endorheic basin of the Senguerr River. Both lakes are located in the Sarmiento Basin.