Name: Date: TIERRA DEL FUEGO In Spanish, Tierra del Fuego means land of fire, which is a surprising name for a place where it regularly snows in the summer. Tierra del Fuego is an archipelago, a string of islands, located at the southern tip of South America. It is a land of contrasts, with high mountain ranges containing an- cient glaciers, as well as numerous narrow sea inlets, called fjords, filled with seals, penguins, and whales. The temperatures are often cold, rarely rising above 50 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer, and parts of Tierra del Fuego are extremely rainy, receiving 118 inches of rain annually. This challenging land was originally settled by the Yaghan people. Despite the challenging cli- mate, the Yaghan did not wear clothes. Instead, they smeared themselves with grease and lit fires for warmth everywhere they went, including on their boats. The smoke from these many fires was visible to early European explorers, who gave Tierra del Fuego its name. The Yaghans met many famous explorers, including Ferdinand Magellan, the first man to sail around the world, and Charles Darwin, the naturalist who first described the concept of evolution. Unfortunately the Yaghans are not doing well; they have been decimated by disease and conflict with colonizers. As of 2012, there is only one woman left who can speak the Yaghan language. In modern times, Tierra del Fuego was divided between two countries, Argentina and Chile. The Argentinian capital is called Ushuraia and the Chilean capital is called Puerto William. In the 1940s, oil was discovered in Tierra del Fuego, and oil and gas extraction is still a major industry in present day Tierra del Fuego. In fact, competition for these resources almost caused a war between Ar- gentina and Chile in 1978, though today the two countries are at peace. Lesson 4B.4 © ResearchILD, 2014 | www.researchild.org | Lexington, MA | 781-861-3711.