PATAGONIA I: Ports and Excursions
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PATAGONIA I: ports and excursions Bob Carson 4 March 2015 Patagonia (orange) Inches 56 48 40 32 24 16 8 ARGENTINA CHILE • 42 million • 18 million Population • 2,800,000 km2 (1/3 Area • 800,000 km2 contiguous USA) Significant • 1960 • 1982 date Buenos Aires, capital of Argentina • Population, 3 million • Mean annual precipitation, 39 inches Uruguay • Area, 176,000 km2 • Population, 3.3 million • Capital, Montevideo – Population, 1.4 million – Mean annual ppt., 37” Montevideo, Uruguay Falkland Islands, United Kingdom (Islas Malvinas) • Population: 2500 nonmilitary people, 700,000 sheep • Mean annual precipitation: 11-25 inches • Capital: Stanley • Migratory birds (including penguins); marine mammals • Bog burst -> peat flow (30 November 1878, 3 June 1886) Just after midnight on Friday, November 29 [1878], one of the inhabitants was awakened by the continued barking of his dog, and thinking that a cow had strayed into his garden, he went outside, when to his alarm he found that his house was surrounded by a black moving mass of peat several feet in height, and travelling down the hill at about four to five miles an hour It was not until daylight that the extent of the disaster was manifested. Bailey, 1879, in Dyer, 1886, Peat floods in the Falklands: Nature • HMS Beagle visited the Falkland Islands twice, in 1833 and 1834, and during the first visit Darwin discovered fossil shells, mostly brachiopods. His first impression had been unfavourable, but after that discovery he noted in his diary: “The whole aspect of the Falkland Islands were however changed to my eyes … for I found a rock abounding with shells; and these of the most interesting age.” Darwin published his account of Falklands’ geology in 1846. The “interesting age” proved to be Devonian, and as more data were acquired a close and surprising similarity was established with the fauna of equivalent age in South Africa. Phil Stone, The Geology of the Falkland Islands Tierra del Fuego (archipelago) • “Land of Fire” (originally “Land of Smoke”) – Magellan saw many fires of the Yaghan • Area, 73,746 km2 (2/3 Chile, 1/3 Argentina) • Southernmost Andes (highest elevation, 7999’) • Precipitation, 20 (E) - 180 (W) inches/year • Population, 135,000 • Discovered by Magellan, 1520 – c. 10, OOO indigenous people – c. 1870, c. 350 (smallpox, measles, genocide) – Today, “a few” indigenous people • Gold discovered, 1879 • Petroleum discovered, 1945 Tierra del Fuego beavers • No natural predators • 2011: 200,000 beavers • Fur trade unsuccessful • Beavers felling trees • Ponds killing trees • Control or eradication by trapping Tierra del Fuego cruising and ports • February 27 – Strait of Magellan • February 28 – Punta Arenas, Chile – Beagle Channel – Glacier Alley • February 29 – Ushuaia, Argentina • March 1 – Cape Horn Ushuaia, Argentina Ushuaia, Argentina • Southernmost city on Earth • Population: 57,000 • Mean annual precipitation: 21 inches Mt. Olivia Tierra del Fuego National Park Hike to El Glaciar le Martial Strait of Magellan Cockburn Channel Beagle Channel Glacier Alley, narrow part of Beagle Channel north of Isla Navarino Cape Horn, Chile, South America • Latitude, 56° S: southernmost land on Earth except Antarctica • Drake Passage between Cape Horn and Antarctica • Darwin: "One sight of such a coast is enough to make a landsman dream for a week about shipwrecks, peril and death." Punta Arenas, Chile Punta Arenas, Chile • “Sandy Point” • Population: 128,000 • Mean annual precipitation: 16 inches • 2 nearby rookeries for Magellanic penguins Excursions from Punta Arenas: Antarctic Peninsula or Perito Moreno glacier, Los Glaciares National Park, Argentina Torres del Paine National Park, Chile Isla Magdalena Zaandam Canal Sarmiento, Chile Chilean Fjords Cape Horn (55° S) to Reloncaví Estuary (42° S) Puerto Montt, Chile • Population: 219,000 • Mean annual precipitation: 69 inches • Economy: tourism, agriculture, cattle, forestry, fishing, salmon aquaculture 1862 Osorno Volcanoes in Chile • Pacific Ring of Fire • Estimated numbers of Chilean volcanoes: 105, 137, about 500 • Volcanoes erupting in Holocene: 123 • Osorno: 11 eruptions, 1575-1869, mostly lava flows [41°S] • Chaiten: 2008, 2011, dome, ash, lahars [43°S] • Villarrica: many eruptions, including 1964, 1971, 2015 [40°S], pyroclastics, lava flows, lahars, caldera, intermittent lava lake Plate tectonics Peru-Chile subduction zone: volcanoes and earthquakes Chaiten Villarrica Valparaiso, Chile • Chile’s second major seaport (after San Antonio) • 70 miles WNW of Santiago • Population: 285,000 • Mean annual precipitation: 15 inches • Historic quarter = UNESCO World Heritage Site 1830 c1863 Valparaiso/Santiago earthquakes • Plate convergence 65-80 mm/year • 13 May 1647, M c 8.5 • 8 July 1730, M c 8 .7, tsunami • 20 Nov 1822, M c 8.5 • 18 August 1906, M c 8.2, tsunami • 22 May 1960, M 9.5, tsunami [#1] • 27 Feb 2010, M 8.8, tsunami [#6] 1906 • 3 March 2014, M 8.2, tsunami Chile earthquake of 22 May 1960 • At M 9.5 largest earthquake ever recorded • Fault displacement 560-620 miles, landslides • Subsidence followed by 80-foot-high tsunami • 1600 deaths, 3000 injuries; every port damaged • 35-foot-high tsunami in Hawaii, 61 killed • 18-foot-high tsunami in Japan, nearly 200 killed • Small tsunamis in Hawaii and then Chile • 24 May: eruption of Cordon-Caulle volcano (after nearly 40 years of inactivity) Subsidence Landslides BEFORE tsunami AFTER tsunami Hilo Santiago, • Founded in 1541 capital of Chile • Elevation, 1706 feet • Population, 6.3 million Letter from Charles Darwin, hewn into the rock of Park Santa Lucia, Santiago, Chile. Darwin is supposed to have looked out at the city from here. LET’S GO! Ushuaia THANK YOU! .