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 ...
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 ...
, situated near its border with
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 ...
. Measuring approximately 50 miles (80 kilometers) in length, it is a major elongated trough
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 ...
formed from melting glacial ice. Viedma Lake is the second largest perennial lake located entirely within Argentina."Principal Lagos de la Republica Argentina", http://www.ign.gob.ar/NuestrasActividades/Geografia/DatosArgentina/Lagos, accessed 20 Jul 2018. Note that this list does not include an area figure for the large but seasonal Mar Chiquita.
The name of the lake comes from the Spanish explorer
Antonio de Viedma
Antonio is a masculine given name of Etruscan origin deriving from the root name Antonius. It is a common name among Romance language–speaking populations as well as the Balkans and Lusophone Africa. It has been among the top 400 most popular m ...
, who in 1783 reached its shores, being the first European to do so.
The town of
El Chaltén
El Chaltén is a small mountain village in Santa Cruz Province, Argentina. It is located on the riverside of Rio de las Vueltas, within the Los Glaciares National Park (section ''Reserva Nacional Zona Viedma'') near the base of Cerro Torre and ...
and 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 ...
peaks
Cerro Torre
Cerro Torre is one of the mountains of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field in South America. It is located on the border dividing Argentina and Chile, west of Fitz Roy (also known as Cerro Chaltén). At , the peak is the highest of a four mountai ...
and
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.Viedma Glacier at its western end. The Viedma Glacier measures 3 miles (5 kilometers) wide at its terminus at Lake Viedma. The brown landscape is a result of ice scouring, which left virtually no vegetation on the steep-walled valleys.
Water from lake Viedma flows into
Lake Argentino
Lago Argentino is a lake in the Patagonian province of Santa Cruz, Argentina, at . It is the largest freshwater lake in Argentina, with a surface area of and a maximum width of . The lake's waters have an average depth of , with a maximum depth ...
through the La Leona River, and eventually from there into the Atlantic Ocean through the Santa Cruz River.
Although the lake lies in Argentine territory, the western shores of the lake reach the
Southern Patagonian Ice Field
The Southern Patagonian Ice Field (), 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 Patagonian Ice Sheet, which c ...
in an area where the border remains undefined.
See also
*
Lake San Martín
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 t ...
*
Lake Argentino
Lago Argentino is a lake in the Patagonian province of Santa Cruz, Argentina, at . It is the largest freshwater lake in Argentina, with a surface area of and a maximum width of . The lake's waters have an average depth of , with a maximum depth ...
Lakes
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 t ...