Southern Patagonian Ice Field
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The Southern Patagonia Ice Field is the third biggest extension of continental ice after the Antarctica and Greenland, located at the Southern Patagonic Andes between Chile and Argentina, and part of the Patagonian Ice Sheet.
It extends from parallels 48° 20′ S to 51° 30′ S for approximately 350 kilometres, and has an area of 16,800 km², of which 14,200 km² belong to Chile and 2,600 km² to Argentina. A large area of the Chile-Argentina border, between Mount Fitzroy and Cerro Daudet, remains undefined [1][2].
The ice field was first studied in 1943 by aereal photographies made by the United States' Air Force on request of the Chilean government. Later explorations include the expeditions of Federico Reichert and Alberto de Agostini, but the field remains largely unexplored.
The ice mass feeds dozens of glaciers in the area, among which are the Upsala (902 km²), Viedma (978 km²) and Perito Moreno (258 km²) in the Los Glaciares National Park in Argentina, and the Pío XI Glacier or Bruggen Glacier (1,265 km², the biggest and longest in the southern hemisphere outside of Antarctica), O'Higgins, Grey and Tyndall in Chile.
An important part of the ice field is protected under different national parks, such as the Bernardo O'Higgins and Torres del Paine in Chile, and the aforementioned Los Glaciares in Argentina.
[edit] References
- ^ 1998 Border agreement between Chile and Argentina. Retrieved on 2006-10-27.
- ^ Map showing border between Chile and Argentina (partly undefined). Retrieved on 2006-10-27.
[edit] External links
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