The Southern Patagonia Ice Field (Spanish: Hielos Continentales or Campo de Hielo Sur) 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 km², of which 14,200 km² belong to Chile and 2,600 km² 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 km²), Viedma (978 km²) and Perito Moreno (258 km²) in the Los Glaciares National Park in Argentina, and the Pio 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.
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, but the field remains largely unexplored.
In August 2006, Argentina urged Chile to expedite the demarcation of the international border that was already established by both countries in the 1881 treaty. Tras la friccion por los Hielos Continentales, la Argentina llama a Chile a demarcar los limites "lo antes posible".
See also
- Northern Patagonian Ice Field
- List of glaciers
- Argentina-Chile relations
References
External links
Other pages about Geography of Magallanes and Chilean Antartica Region
-Aguila Islet -Almirantazgo Fjord -Angamos Island -Azopardo River -Bruggen Glacier -Brunswick Peninsula -Cami/Fagnano Lake -Cape Froward -Cape Horn -Cerro Castillo Dynevor -Cerro Chalten -Cerro Torre -Cordillera Darwin -Cordillera Riesco -Cordillera Sarmiento -Cordillera del Paine -Cueva del Milodon Natural Monument -Dawson Island -Del Toro Lake -Dickson Glacier -Diego Ramirez Islands -Drake Passage -False Cape Horn -Fjord of the Mountains -Greve Lake -Grey Glacier -Grey Lake -Grey River (Chile) -Hardy Peninsula -Hearst Island -Hermite Islands -Hornos Island -Hoste Island -Ildefonso Islands -Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego -Larsen Ice Shelf -Magdalena Island, Magallanes, Chile -Messier Channel -Monte Balmaceda -Mount Darwin (Andes) -Mount Tarn -Murray Channel -Navarino Island -Nordenskjold Lake -Paine River -Patagonia -Pehoe Lake -Picton, Lennox and Nueva -Primera Angostura -Punta Dungeness -Santa Ines -Sarmiento Lake -Serrano River -Southern Patagonian Ice Field -Strait of Magellan -Tierra del Fuego -Ultima Esperanza Sound -Villa Puerto Eden -Weddell Sea -Wellington Island -Wollaston Islands
Other pages about Glaciers of Chile
-Bernardo Glacier -Bruggen Glacier -Dickson Glacier -Grey Glacier -Jorge Montt Glacier -Nef Glacier -Northern Patagonian Ice Field -O'Higgins Glacier -Patagonian Ice Sheet -San Quintin Glacier -San Rafael Glacier -Southern Patagonian Ice Field
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Southern_Patagonian_Ice_Field
