The lake known as O'Higgins in Chile and San Martin in Argentina, is located around coordinates in the Patagonia, between the Aysen Region and the Santa Cruz Province.
Its surface is of 1,058 km² at 250 metres above mean sea level, and has a shoreline length of 525 km. The lake is the deepest in the Americas with a maximum depth of 836 metres near O'Higgins Glacier. It's mainly fed by the Mayer River and other streams, and its outlet Pascua River discharges water from the lake towards the Pacific Ocean at a rate of 510 m³/s. The Southern Patagonian Ice Sheet extend from the lake for 330 kilometres to the Viedma Lake and Argentino Lake. The O'Higgins Glacier flows eastwards towards the lake, as does the Chico Glacier.
Immigrants did not settle in the arid windy area around the lake until the 1910s, when British, Scandinavian and Swiss started raising sheep for wool.
The most common tourist path visiting the lake is that between El Chalten in Argentina and Villa O'Higgins in Chile, including a ferry through the lake on the Chilean side.
Names
Being the most irregular of the lakes in the area, consisting of eight well defined arms, the name San Martin is sometimes used to refer only to the Argentine side, and O'Higgins to the 4 Chilean arms. Both names come from independence heroes Jose de San Martin of Argentina and Bernardo O'Higgins of Chile, who even fought together for the liberation of Chile, and became to be known as Liberators of America together with other South American figures.
The 4 Argentine arms of the lake, with an area of 521 km², are named Cancha Rayada, Chacabuco, Maipu and De la Lancha, after battles of General San Martin,
References
External links
Other pages about Lakes of Argentina
-Buenos Aires/General Carrera Lake -Cami/Fagnano Lake -Cochrane/Pueyrredon Lake -Espejo Lake -Gutierrez Lake -Lacar Lake -Laguna Melincue -Laguna del Diamante -Lake Argentino -Lake Huechulafquen -Lake Viedma -Mar Chiquita (Cordoba) -Nahuel Huapi Lake -O'Higgins/San Martin Lake -Palena/General Vintter Lake -Pellegrini Lake -Puelo Lake -San Roque Lake -Traful Lake
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article O'Higgins/San_Martin_Lake
