General Carrera Lake (Chilean part, officially renamed in 1959) or Lake Buenos Aires (Argentine part) is a deep

lake A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from ...

located in

Patagonia Patagonia () is a geographical region that includes parts of Argentina and Chile at the southern end of South America. The region includes the southern section of the Andes mountain chain with lakes, fjords, temperate rainforests, and glaciers ...

and shared by

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

and

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 ...

. Both names are internationally accepted, while the

autochthonous Autochthon, autochthons or autochthonous may refer to: Nature * Autochthon (geology), a sediment or rock that can be found at its site of formation or deposition * Autochthon (nature), or landrace, an indigenous animal or plant * Autochthonou ...

name of the lake is Chelenko, which means "stormy waters" in Aonikenk. Another historical name is Coluguape from

Mapuche The Mapuche ( , ) also known as Araucanians are a group of Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous inhabitants of south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina, including parts of Patagonia. The collective term refers to a wide-ranging e ...

, a derivative of this name is applied to Colhué Huapí Lake after Argentine explorer

Francisco Moreno Francisco Pascasio Moreno (May 31, 1852 – November 22, 1919) was a prominent explorer and academic in Argentina, where he is usually referred to as ''Perito'' Moreno (''perito'' means "specialist, expert"). Perito Moreno has been credited as on ...

reached this lake in 1876 conflating it with Coluguape (General Carrera Lake). The lake is of

glacial A glacier (; or ) is a persistent body of dense ice, a form of rock, that is constantly moving downhill under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires ...

origin and is surrounded by the

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 ...

mountain range. The lake drains to the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

on the west through the Baker River. During the last glaciation the lake drained to the Atlantic through

Deseado River Deseado River () is a river in the Argentine province of Santa Cruz. The name Deseado comes from the English ''Desire'', the name of one of the two ships commanded by John Davis during the Thomas Cavendish expedition of 1592. The source of ...

. The weather in this area of Chile and Argentina is generally cold and humid. But the lake itself has a sunny

microclimate A microclimate (or micro-climate) is a local set of atmosphere of Earth, atmospheric conditions that differ from those in the surrounding areas, often slightly but sometimes substantially. The term may refer to areas as small as a few square m ...

, a weather pattern enjoyed by the few settlements along the lake, such as Puerto Guadal, Fachinal, Mallín Grande, Puerto Murta, Puerto Río Tranquilo, Puerto Sánchez,

Puerto Ingeniero Ibáñez Puerto Ibáñez is a small town in the Aisén Region in the south of Chile. It is located on a bay off the north shore of General Carrera Lake, south of Coihaique. In the 2002 census it had a population of 757. It is the capital of the commune ...

and Chile Chico in Chile, and

Los Antiguos Los Antiguos is a town in Santa Cruz Province, Argentina, located on the south shore of Lago Buenos Aires. It lies 2 km from the border with Chile, and 8 km from the Chilean town of Chile Chico. It is connected to Perito Moreno and ...

and Perito Moreno in Argentina. The area near the coast of the lake was first inhabited by

criollos In Hispanic America, criollo () is a term used originally to describe people of full Spanish descent born in the viceroyalties. In different Latin American countries, the word has come to have different meanings, mostly referring to the local ...

and European immigrants between 1900 and 1925. In 1971 and 1991, eruptions of the Hudson Volcano severely affected the local economy, especially that of

sheep Sheep (: sheep) or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are a domesticated, ruminant mammal typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus '' Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to d ...

farming. A car ferry operates between Puerto Ingeniero Ibáñez and Chile Chico in the Chilean sector of the lake. The lake is known as a

trout Trout (: trout) is a generic common name for numerous species of carnivorous freshwater ray-finned fishes belonging to the genera '' Oncorhynchus'', ''Salmo'' and ''Salvelinus'', all of which are members of the subfamily Salmoninae in the ...

and

salmon Salmon (; : salmon) are any of several list of commercially important fish species, commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the genera ''Salmo'' and ''Oncorhynchus'' of the family (biology), family Salmonidae, native ...

fishing destination.

Area

The lake has a surface of of which are in the Chilean Aysén del General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo Region, and in the Argentine Santa Cruz Province, making it the biggest lake in Chile, and the fourth largest in Argentina. In its western basin, Lake Gen. Carrera has maximum depth.

Geology

The lake occupies a continental-scale

graben In geology, a graben () is a depression (geology), depressed block of the Crust (geology), crust of a planet or moon, bordered by parallel normal faults. Etymology ''Graben'' is a loan word from German language, German, meaning 'ditch' or 't ...

formed by SWS-ENE normal faults that have resulted in down-dropping the bottom of the lake to below mean sea level. Preservation of younger lithostratigraphic units within the graben form reverse stratigraphy with older units exposed at higher topographic elevations to the south. The graben channeled mountain glaciers which formed terminal moraine helping to modify the present-day shape of the lake. The tectonic activity that formed the depression can be inferred to subduction of the triple joint that has occurred over the past 20 million years, as indicated by ripple marks in volcaniclastic sediments observed along the southern shoreline. There is some speculation on whether the tectonics and crustal heat flow in the lake area are influenced by the asthenospheric window that exists beneath the crust in this region of Patagonia. The Marble Caves, Marble Chapel, and Marble Cathedral are unusual geological formations located on the shoreline midway along the lake's length. They represent a group of caverns, columns, and tunnels formed in monoliths of marble. The Marble Caves have been formed by wave action over the last 6,200 years. The northwestern shores have valuable mineral deposits of

lead Lead () is a chemical element; it has Chemical symbol, symbol Pb (from Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a Heavy metal (elements), heavy metal that is density, denser than most common materials. Lead is Mohs scale, soft and Ductility, malleabl ...

and

zinc Zinc is a chemical element; it has symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodic tabl ...

which were exploited intermittently from 1931 to 1996 in Puerto Cristal. There are various

river delta A river delta is a landform, archetypically triangular, created by the deposition of the sediments that are carried by the waters of a river, where the river merges with a body of slow-moving water or with a body of stagnant water. The creat ...

s on the lake's shores and some of them have older parts that are raised showing ivendence of higher lake levels in the past. The three main deltas lie at the outlet of the rivers Maitenes, Aviles and Jeinimeni on the southern shores.Williams. 2022
Delta size variability at Lake General Carrera, Patagonia
''

Andean Geology ''Andean Geology'' (formerly ''Revista Geológica de Chile'') is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published three times per year by the National Geology and Mining Service, Chile's geology and mining agency. The journal covers the field of geo ...

''.

Gallery

File:SRTM-W75.80E71.50S47.00N46.00.Chilechico.png, SRTM-Topography of the Chilean zone File:ChileChico-001.jpg, Boat near Chile Chico in

File:Sur1.gif, Map of the Chilean zone file:Catedraldemarmol.JPG, Folded and weathered

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock consisting of carbonate minerals (most commonly calcite (CaCO3) or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite (CaMg(CO3)2) that have recrystallized under the influence of heat and pressure. It has a crystalline texture, and is ty ...

at General Carrera Lake

References

External links

* {{Authority control Argentina–Chile border Cenozoic rifts and grabens International lakes of South America Lakes of Aysén Region Lakes of Chile Lakes of Santa Cruz Province, Argentina

Area

Geology

Gallery

See also

References

External links