The Zona Austral (''Southernmost Zone'') is one of the five

natural region A natural region (landscape unit) is a basic geographic unit. Usually, it is a region which is distinguished by its common natural features of geography, geology, and climate. From the ecological point of view, the naturally occurring flora and ...

s into which CORFO divided

continental Chile Continental Chile is the name given to the Chilean territory located on the continental shelf of South America. This term serves to distinguish the South American area from the insular territories, known as Insular Chile, as from the Chilean Anta ...

in 1950 corresponding to the

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

an portion of

Patagonia Patagonia () refers to a geographical region that encompasses the southern end of South America, governed by Argentina and Chile. The region comprises the southern section of the Andes Mountains with lakes, fjords, temperate rainforests, and g ...

. It is surrounded by the

Zona Sur Zona Sur (''Southern Zone'') is one of the five natural regions on which CORFO divided continental Chile in 1950. Its northern border is formed by the Bío-Bío River, which separates it from the Central Chile Zone. The Southern Zone borders t ...

and the Chacao Channel to the north, the Pacific Ocean and Drake's Passage to the south and west, and the Andean mountains and

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

to the east. If excluding

Chiloé Archipelago The Chiloé Archipelago ( es, Archipiélago de Chiloé, , ) is a group of islands lying off the coast of Chile, in the Los Lagos Region. It is separated from mainland Chile by the Chacao Channel in the north, the Sea of Chiloé in the east and t ...

Zona Austral covers all of Chilean

Geography

Physical geography

In the far south (Chile Austral), which extends from Valdivia through the Chacao Channel to

Cape Horn Cape Horn ( es, Cabo de Hornos, ) is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island. Although not the most southerly point of South America (which are the Diego Ramí ...

, the Andes and the South Pacific meet. This district of the country is mountainous, heavily forested and inhospitable. The deeply indented coastline is filled with islands which preserve the general outline of the continent southward to the Fuegian archipelago, the outside groups forming a continuation of the Chilean Coast Range. The heavy and continuous rainfall throughout this region, especially in the latitude of Chiloé, gives rise to a large number of rivers and lakes. Farther south this excessive precipitation is in the form of snow in the

Andes The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...

, forming

glacier A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires distinguishing features, such as ...

s at a comparatively low level which in places discharge into the inlets and bays of the sea. The extreme southern part of this region extends eastward to the Atlantic entrance to the Strait of Magellan, and includes the greater part of the

Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego (English: ''Big Island of the Land of Fire'') also formerly ''Isla de Xátiva''Michinmahuida volcano southwards a well-defined western

longitudinal valley A longitudinal valley is an elongated valley found between two almost-parallel mountain chains in geologically young fold mountains, such as the Alps, Carpathians, Andes, or the highlands of Central Asia. They are often occupied and shaped by a ...

, occupied by the

Carretera Austral The Carretera Austral (CH-7, ''in English: Southern Way'') is the name given to Chile's Route 7. The highway runs south for about from Puerto Montt to Villa O'Higgins, passing through rural Patagonia. Carretera Austral provides road access ...

, divides the Andes into two chains, the eastern being the main chain, to which belong mounts Ventisquero Sur, Barros Arana and Alto Nevado, while the western chain, broken into imposing blocks, contains several high volcanic peaks such as

Corcovado Corcovado (korcovádo) which means "hunchback" in Portuguese, is a mountain in central Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is a 710-metre (2,329 ft) granite peak located in the Tijuca Forest, a national park. Corcovado hill lies just west of the c ...

, Yanteles and

Melimoyu Melimoyu is a stratovolcano (Mapudungun ''meli''="four"; the name means "four breasts".) in Chile. It is an elongated volcanic complex that contains two nested calderas of and width. An ice cap has developed on the volcano with a couple of out ...

. An important transverse mountain range of the Andes separates the valleys of the rivers

Simpson Simpson most often refers to: * Simpson (name), a British surname *''The Simpsons'', an animated American sitcom **The Simpson family, central characters of the series ''The Simpsons'' Simpson may also refer to: Organizations Schools *Simpso ...

and Ibañez. This section is dominated by the active Hudson volcano and the jagged

Cerro Castillo : Cerro Castillo is a jagged rocky peak located in the Aysén del General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo Region of Chile, within the Cerro Castillo National Park. ''Castillo'' means ''castle'' in Spanish, and the steep basalt walls of the mountai ...

. Southward from General Carrera lake is found a wide oblique opening in the range, through which flows the river Baker. The main chain of the Andes in the west is an enormous rugged mass of ice and snow of an average height of 2700 m (9000 ft.), sending glaciers to all the western fjords. Monte San Valentin (4,058 m 3,314 ft. is the culminating point of the Andes in the region extending from 49° to 46° S latitude Monte San Lorenzo, detached from the main chain of the Andes, is 3,706 m (12,156 ft.) high. The section from 48° to 52° S latitude is a continuous ice-capped mountain range, and some of the glaciers extend from the eastern lakes to the western channels, where they reach the sea-level. The highest mountain in the section is

Lautaro Lautaro (Anglicized as 'Levtaru') ( arn, Lef-Traru " swift hawk") (; 1534? – April 29, 1557) was a young Mapuche toqui known for leading the indigenous resistance against Spanish conquest in Chile and developing the tactics that would conti ...

volcano, but the most famous compose the

Cordillera del Paine The Cordillera Paine is a mountain group in Torres del Paine National Park in Chilean Patagonia. The cordillera is located north of Punta Arenas, and about south of the Chilean capital Santiago. It belongs to the Commune of Torres del Paine ...

in the south and the

Fitz Roy Monte Fitz Roy (also known as Cerro Chaltén, Cerro Fitz Roy, or simply Mount Fitz Roy) is a mountain in Patagonia, on the border between Argentina and Chile.Cordillera Sarmiento and Cordillera Riesco, which are separated by the Fjord of the Mountains. From the 52 deg. S. lat. up to Strait of Magellan, the western slope of the Cordillera does not, properly speaking, exist. Abrupt walls overlook the Pacific, and great longitudinal and transversal channels and fjords run right through the heart of the range, cutting it generally in a direction more or less oblique to its axis, the result of movements of the Earth's crust. This region is not fully explored, and all that is known of it is that it is principally composed of the same rocks as the Fuegian Andes, and that the greater part of its upper valleys is occupied by glaciers that reach down to the sea amid dense forest. The Cordillera of the Andes in Tierra del Fuego is formed of crystalline schists, and culminates in the snow-capped peaks of Mount Darwin and Monte Sarmiento in the

Cordillera Darwin The Cordillera Darwin is an extensive mountain range mantled by an ice field that is located in Chile. Description Cordillera Darwin is located in the southwestern portion of Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego, entirely within the Chilean territory. ...

, which contains glaciers of greater extent than those of

Mont Blanc Mont Blanc (french: Mont Blanc ; it, Monte Bianco , both meaning "white mountain") is the highest mountain in the Alps and Western Europe, rising above sea level. It is the second-most prominent mountain in Europe, after Mount Elbrus, and ...

. The extent of the glaciers is considerable in this region, which, geographically, is more complex than was formerly supposed. Although, in the explored portion of the Fuegian chain, the volcanoes which have been mentioned from time to time have not been met with, there seem to have existed to the south, on the islands, many neo-volcanic rocks, some of which appear to be contemporaneous with the basaltic sheet that covers a part of eastern Patagonia. Farther south the Andes terminates in Cape Horn. In this section the mountains are composed principally of crystalline rocks, and their heights are inconsiderable when compared with those of the northern Andes.

Coasts

The continental coastline features numerous inlets and fjords, from which the mountains seem to rise straight up to great elevations; this is, for example, the case with the Cerro Macá (2,300 meters) near Puerto Aisén. The rest of the land consists of literally thousands of islands forming numerous archipelagos interwoven with sometimes-narrow channels, which provide the main routes of navigation. The grouping of such islands shows that they are in part the summits of a submerged mountain chain, a continuation southward of the Chilean Coast Range. Three groups of these, called Chiloé, Guaitecas and Chonos archipelagoes, lie North of the

Taitao Peninsula The Taitao Peninsula (Spanish: ''Península de Taitao'') is a westward projection of the mainland of Chile, with which it is connected by the narrow Isthmus of Ofqui, over which the natives and early missionaries were accustomed to carry their bo ...

. The largest island of this portion of Austral Chile is Chiloé, which is inhabited. Some of the smaller islands of these groups are also inhabited, though the excessive rainfall of these latitudes and the violent westerly storms render them highly unfavourable for human occupation. Some of the smallest islands are barren rocks, but the majority of them are covered with forests. These archipelagoes are separated from the mainland in the north by the gulfs of

Ancud Ancud () is a city in southern Chile located in the northernmost part of the island and province of Chiloé, in Los Lagos Region. It is the second largest city of Chiloé Archipelago after Castro. The city was established in 1768 to function as ...

and

, 30 to 35 mi wide, which appear to be a submerged part of the great Chilean Central Valley, and farther south by the narrower

Moraleda Channel Moraleda Channel () is a body of water separating the Chonos Archipelago from the mainland of Chile. It is located at , leading to Gulf of Corcovado. Southward from the mouth of the Aisén Fjord, Moraleda Channel divides into two arms. The east a ...

, which terminates southward in a confusing network of passages between the mainland and the islands of the Chonos group. Below the Taitao peninsula is the broad open

Gulf of Penas The Gulf of Penas (''Golfo de Penas'' in Spanish, meaning "gulf of distress") is a body of water located south of the Taitao Peninsula, Chile. Geography It is open to the westerly storms of the Pacific Ocean, but it affords entrance to several nat ...

, which carries the coast-line eastward fully 100 mi and is noticeably free from islands, with some exceptions. The northern entrance to Messier Channel is through this gulf. Messier, Pitt, Sarmiento and Smyth's Channels, which form a comparatively safe and remarkably picturesque inside route for ships, about 338 mi in length, separate another series of archipelagoes from the mainland. These channels are in places narrow and tortuous. Among the islands which thickly fringe this part of the coast, the largest are Merino Jarpa (lying within Baker Channel),

Prat Prat may refer to: People *Arturo Prat, a Chilean naval officer * Jean Prat, a French rugby union footballer Places * Villa Prat a small city in the O'Higgins Region in Chile * Capitán Prat Province, the eighth-largest province of Chile * Capit ...

, Campana (part of Guayaneco Archipelago), Little Wellington,

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by metr ...

and Mornington (of the Wellington Archipelago), Madre de Dios, Duke of York, Chatham,

Hanover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...

, Cambridge, Contreras, Rennell and the

Queen Adelaide Archipelago Queen Adelaide Archipelago ( es, Archipiélago Reina Adelaida) is an island group in Zona Austral, the extreme south of Chile. It belongs to the Magallanes y la Antártica Chilena Region. The major islands in the group are Pacheco Island, Contrer ...

, a group of small barren rocks and islands lying immediately north of the Pacific entrance to the Strait of Magellan. The large number of English names on this coast is due to the fact that the earliest detailed survey of this region was made by English naval officers; the charts prepared from their surveys are still in use and form the basis of all subsequent maps. Belonging to the

Tierra del Fuego Tierra del Fuego (, ; Spanish for "Land of the Fire", rarely also Fireland in English) is an archipelago off the southernmost tip of the South American mainland, across the Strait of Magellan. The archipelago consists of the main island, Isla ...

archipelago south of the Strait of Magellan are Desolación, Santa Inés,

Clarence Clarence may refer to: Places Australia * Clarence County, New South Wales, a Cadastral division * Clarence, New South Wales, a place near Lithgow * Clarence River (New South Wales) * Clarence Strait (Northern Territory) * City of Clarence, a l ...

, Capitán Aracena, Dawson, Londonderry, Hoste,

Navarino Navarino or Navarin may refer to: Battle * Battle of Navarino, 1827 naval battle off Navarino, Greece, now known as Pylos Geography * Navarino, Wisconsin, a town, United States * Navarino (community), Wisconsin, an unincorporated community, Unit ...

and

Wollaston Islands The Wollaston Islands () are a group of islands in Chile south of Navarino Island and north of Cape Horn and east of the Hoste Island. The islands are ''Grevy'', ''Bayly'', ''Wollaston'' and ''Freycinet'', as well as the islets ''Dédalo'', ''S ...

, with innumerable smaller islands and rocks fringing their shores and filling the channels between them. The far south contains large expanses of pastures that are best suited for raising sheep, mainly on

Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego (English: ''Big Island of the Land of Fire'') also formerly ''Isla de Xátiva''natural gas extraction from the areas around the Strait of Magellan. This strait is one of the world's important sea-lanes because it unites the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through a channel that avoids the rough open waters off

. The channel is perilous, however, and Chilean pilots guide all vessels through it.

Hydrography

Rivers

The

Comau Fjord Comau Fjord, also known as Leptepu Fjord, is a fjord that penetrates the mainland of Chile, in Los Lagos Region. It runs in a generally north–south direction from the Gulf of Ancud 250px, Map of the Sea of Chiloé and nearby roads. The Gulf ...

and Vodudahue River traverse the densely wooded country in a north-westerly direction from the Andes to the north-eastern shore of the Gulf of Chacao. This area is home to Pumalín Park. Continuing southward, the Yelcho is the next important river to traverse this region. Forming part of its basin is the

Futaleufú River The Futaleufú River, located in northern Patagonia, is one of the premier whitewater rivers in the world. One of only two rivers to cross the 5,308 kilometer Chile-Argentina border, the Futaleufú headwaters can be found in the glacial snow mel ...

, which drains a large area of Argentine territory. Yelcho flows north-west from Yelcho Lake to the Gulf of Corcovado. The Palena is another river of the same character, having its source in a large frontier lake, which is called General Paz or General Vintter in Argentina and Palena in Chile. It flows for some distance through Argentine territory before crossing into Chile. It receives one large tributary from the south, the

Pico River The Pico River is a binational river of Patagonian Argentina and Chile. It is a tributary of the Figueroa River which it enters near El Manzanito in Chile. The Pico Rivers arises at the confluence of the Río Tromencó and the Río de las Mulas ...

, and enters an estuary of the Gulf of Corcovado a little north of the 44th parallel. The Cisnes is wholly a Chilean river, draining an extensive Andean region between the 44th and 45th parallels and discharging into the Puyuhuapi Channel, which separates Magdalena Island from the mainland. The

Aisén River Aisén or Aysén may refer to: *Aisén (name), an African name for a boy or a girl Places

*Aysén, Chile, a commune in Aysén Province *Aysén Region, one of Chile's administrative divisions *Aysén Province, a province in the Chilean region ...

also has its source near the 46th parallel, and drains a mountainous region as far north es the 45th parallel, receiving numerous tributaries, and discharging a large volume of water into the Aysén Fjord. The next large river is the Baker River, through which the waters of lakes General Carrera and Cochrane, find their way to the Pacific. Both of these large lakes are crossed by the boundary line. The Baker discharges into Baker Channel. The course of the river from lake General Carrera is south and south-west, the short range of mountains in which are found the cerros San Valentín and Arenales forcing it southward for an outlet. Baker inlet also receives the waters of still another large Argentine-Chilean lake, O'Higgins Lake. Its north-west arm drains into the

Pascua River The Pascua River is a river located in the Aysén del General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo Region of Chile. In spite of being a short river, its drainage basin is the seventh-largest in the country due to the great size of the O'Higgins/San Martí ...

. After a short north-westerly course the river discharges into Baker Inlet in lat. 48° 13′ S., long. 73° 24′ W. South of Pascua river there are no large rivers on this coast, but the narrow fjords penetrate deeply into the mountains and bring away the drainage of their snow-capped, storm-swept elevations. A peculiar network of fjords and connecting channels terminating inland in a peculiarly shaped body of water with long, widely branching arms, called Worsley Sound, Obstruction Sound and

Última Esperanza Sound Última Esperanza Sound ( es, Seno de Última Esperanza, ‘Last Hope Sound’ or 'Inlet of Last Hope') is an inlet stretching from the mouth of Eberhard Fjord to the outskirts of Monte Balmaceda, within the Magallanes Basin. The navigator Juan ...

, covers an extensive area between the 51st and 53rd parallels, and extends nearly to the Argentine frontier. It has the characteristics of a tidewater river and drains an extensive region. A noteworthy peculiarity of southern Chile, from the Taitao peninsula to Tierra del Fuego, is the large number of glaciers formed on the western and southern slopes of the Andes and other high elevations, which discharge direct into these deeply cut estuaries. Some of the larger lakes of the Andes have glaciers discharging into them. The formation of these icy streams at comparatively low levels, with their discharge direct into tidewater estuaries, is a phenomenon not to be found elsewhere in the same latitudes.

Lakes

The great Andean lakes of Palena (near the 44th parallel), General Carrera (in lat 46° 30′ S.), Cochrane (47° 15′ S.) and O'Higgins ( 49° S.), lie partly within Chilean territory. In Argentina are called, respectively, General Paz (also is known as General Vintter), Buenos Aires, Pueyrredón and San Martín. Towards the coast, other important lakes are Presidente Rios Lake,

Laguna San Rafael San Rafael Lake is an arc-shaped coastal lake located in the Aysén del General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo Region of Chile, within the national park that bears its name. To the north the lagoon is connected to the Moraleda Channel, to the south ...

and Yulton Lake. Southward from the southern portion of

Southern Patagonian Ice Field The Southern Patagonian Ice Field ( es, Hielo Continental or '), located at the Southern Patagonic Andes between Chile and Argentina, is the world's second largest contiguous extrapolar ice field. It is the bigger of two remnant parts of the P ...

(about 51° S. lat.), lakes include Del Toro and Sarmiento. The former overflows into Última Esperanza Sound. In the extreme south of Chile mainland is Laguna Blanca, a large fresh-water lake in lat. 52° 30′ S. Notable lakes in Tierra del Fuego include Fagnano (shared with Argentina),

Blanco Blanco (''white'' or ''blank'' in Spanish) or Los Blancos may refer to: People *Blanco (surname) Fictional characters *Blanco, a hobbit in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth * Blanco Webb, character in the BBC sitcom ''Porridge'' * El Blanco, albin ...

and Ofhidro.

Climate

In the northern part of the far south, there is still plenty of rainfall. For instance, Puerto Aisén, at 45° 24′ south latitude, receives 2,973.3 millimeters of rain per year. However, unlike in

Valdivia Valdivia (; Mapuche: Ainil) is a city and commune in southern Chile, administered by the Municipality of Valdivia. The city is named after its founder Pedro de Valdivia and is located at the confluence of the Calle-Calle, Valdivia, and Cau-Cau R ...

, the rain falls more or less evenly throughout the year in Puerto Aisén. The summer months average 206.1 millimeters, whereas the winter months average 300 millimeters. The temperatures at sea level in Puerto Aisén average 13.6 °C in the summer months and 4.7 °C in the winter months. The area is still heavily forested, although some of the native species of trees that grow in the central and southern parts of the country have given way to others better adapted to a generally colder climate. The southern part of the far south includes the city of

Punta Arenas Punta Arenas (; historically Sandy Point in English) is the capital city of Chile's southernmost region, Magallanes and Antarctica Chilena. The city was officially renamed as Magallanes in 1927, but in 1938 it was changed back to "Punta Are ...

, which, with about 125,000 inhabitants, is the southernmost city in the world with over 100,000 inhabitants (see

Southernmost settlements Southernmost settlements are cities, towns, weather stations or permanent military bases which are farther south than latitude 45°S. They are closely related to the Southern Ocean or either the Roaring Forties or Furious Fifties. Antarctic bas ...

). It receives much less precipitation; its annual total is only 438.5 millimeters, or a little more than what Valdivia receives in the month of June alone. This precipitation is distributed more or less evenly throughout the year, with the two main summer months receiving a monthly average of 31 millimeters and the winter months 38.9 millimeters, some of it in the form of snow. Temperatures are colder than in the rest of the country. The summer months average 11.1 °C, and the winter months average 2.5 °C. The virtually constant wind from the South Pacific Ocean makes the air feel much colder.

References

* * {{coord missing, Chile Ecology of Patagonia Natural regions of Chile Geography of Chile Patagonia