The Cordillera Darwin is an extensive
mountain range
A mountain range or hill range is a series of mountains or hills arranged in a line and connected by high ground. A mountain system or mountain belt is a group of mountain ranges with similarity in form, structure, and alignment that have aris ...
mantled by an
ice field that is located in
Chile
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...
.
Description
Cordillera Darwin is located in the southwestern portion of
Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego, entirely within the Chilean territory. It is part of the longest
Andes
The Andes ( ), Andes Mountains or Andean Mountain Range (; ) are the List of longest mountain chains on Earth, longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range ...
range and includes the highest mountains in
Tierra del Fuego
Tierra del Fuego (, ; Spanish for "Land of Fire", rarely also Fireland in English) is an archipelago off the southernmost tip of the South America, South American mainland, across the Strait of Magellan.
The archipelago consists of the main is ...
, with elevations reaching over ; The ice field of the Cordillera Darwin covers an area greater than . The Darwin Range extends in a west–east direction from the
Monte Sarmiento (located in the vicinity of
Magdalena Channel) to
Yendegaia Valley. It is bounded by the
Almirantazgo Fjord on the north and the
Beagle Channel
Beagle Channel (; Yahgan language, Yahgan: ''Onašaga'') is a strait in the Tierra del Fuego, Tierra del Fuego Archipelago, on the extreme southern tip of South America between Chile and Argentina. The channel separates the larger main island of I ...
on the south. The range is named after
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English Natural history#Before 1900, naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all speci ...
and is the most important feature of
Alberto de Agostini National Park, which includes a number of well-known glaciers including the
Marinelli Glacier, which is now under prolonged retreat as of 2008.
In October 2011, a team of French mountaineers from the French Army's
Groupe Militaire de Haute Montagne announced the first crossing of the Cordillera Darwin in a 29-day trip which included an ascent of
Mount Darwin, the highest peak in the range.
Geology
The Cordillera Darwin
metamorphic core complex is a geological complex composed mainly of
metamorphic rocks. It has been suggested to be analogous to the Eastern Andes Metamorphic Complex
[Hervé, F.; Fanning, C.M.; Pankhurst, R.J.; Mpodozis, C.; Klepeis, K.; Calderón, M.; Thomson, S.N. (2010). ]
Detrital zircon SHRIMP U–Pb age study of the Cordillera Darwin Metamorphic Complex of Tierra del Fuego: sedimentary sources and implications for the evolution of the Pacific margin of Gondwana
�
Journal of the Geological Society, London 167 (3)
555-568.. The Cordillera Darwin metamorphic complex is the only metamorphic complex in the southern Andes known to have
amphibolite
Amphibolite () is a metamorphic rock that contains amphibole, especially hornblende and actinolite, as well as plagioclase feldspar, but with little or no quartz. It is typically dark-colored and dense, with a weakly foliated or schistose ...
facies rocks containing
kyanite and
sillimanite, evidence of high-grade
metamorphism
Metamorphism is the transformation of existing Rock (geology), rock (the protolith) to rock with a different mineral composition or Texture (geology), texture. Metamorphism takes place at temperatures in excess of , and often also at elevated ...
. This took place during the
Cretaceous
The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 143.1 to 66 mya (unit), million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era (geology), Era, as well as the longest. At around 77.1 million years, it is the ...
, presumably in association with the closure of the
Rocas Verdes basin.
The
protoliths of the Cordillera Darwin metamorphic complex are not related to the Tierra del Fuego igneous and metamorphic complex, despite the present-day proximity
Major peaks
*
Monte Darwin
*
Monte Sarmiento
*
Monte Italia
*
Monte Bove
*
Monte Roncagli
*
Monte Luis de Saboya
*
Monte Della Vedova
*
Monte Buckland
See also
*
Ainsworth Bay, Chile
*
Cordillera Darwin Metamorphic Complex
Notes
External links
* C. Michael Hogan. 200
''Bahia Wulaia Dome Middens'', ''Megalithic Portal'', ed. Andy Burnham* Darwin exploration by the French explorer Christian Clo
(In French)
Darwin
Landforms of Magallanes Region
Ice fields of South America
Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego
{{MagellanAntarctic-geo-stub