MundoAndino Home : Andes Chile Guide at Mundo Andino
Southern Patagonian Ice Field
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 Argentina and Chile and part of the Patagonian Ice Sheet.
Background
It extends from parallels 48 20 S to 51 30 S for approximately 350 kilometres, and has an area of 16,800 km, of which 14,200 km belong to Chile and 2,600 km to Argentina. 50 km of the Chile-Argentina border, between Mount Fitzroy and Cerro Daudet, remains undefined .
The ice mass feeds dozens of glaciers in the area, among which are the Upsala (902 km), Viedma (978 km) and Perito Moreno (258 km) in the Los Glaciares National Park in Argentina, and the Pio XI Glacier or Bruggen Glacier , 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.
There are several volcanoes under the glaciers, such as Lautaro Volcano.
History
The ice field was first studied in 1943 by aerial photographs 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, as well as Eric Shipton, but the field remains largely unexplored.
Borderline
The Southern Patagonian Ice Field is the last border issue between Chile and Argentina. 1991 the governments of Chile and Argentina agreed on a borderline, but president Menem of Argentina retracted the project in view of the low acceptance in parlament. Later, 1996, both governments explicit agreed, that the borderline in this zone is to be excluded of and a note about the issue is to be added to any map of the zone.
2006 Argentine Instituto Geografico Militar edited a map without any note and with the Argentine claims as the official borderline. After Chilean diplomatic protest the Argentine government withdraw the map and urged Chile to expedite the demarcation of the international border that was already established by both countries in the 1881 treaty.
Subsecretario argentino de turismo dice que mapa de Campos de Hielo es oficial "El Mercurio", Chile 29 August 2006
Hielos Continentales: reclamo de Chile por los mapas argentinos Clarin, Argentina 29 August 2006
Tras la friccion por los Hielos Continentales, la Argentina llama a Chile a demarcar los limites "lo antes posible" Clarin, 30 August 1996
Zoff um jeden Meter Eis Condor, Chile 8 September 2006
See also
Northern Patagonian Ice Field
List of glaciers
Argentina-Chile relations
External links
Need more information for your travel research or homework?
Ask your questions at the forum about Geography of Magallanes and Chilean Antartica Region or help others to find answers.
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Southern Patagonian Ice Field
