General Carrera Lake (Chilean side, officially renamed
in 1959) or Lake Buenos Aires (Argentine
side) is a lake located in Patagonia and shared by Argentina and Chile. Both names are internationally
accepted.
The lake has a surface of 1,850 km²
of which 970 km² are in the Chilean Aysén del General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo Region, and 880 km² 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 586 m maximum depth.
The lake is of glacial origin and is surrounded by
the Andes mountain range. The lake drains to the Pacific Ocean on
the west through the Baker River.
The weather in this area of Chile and
Argentina is generally cold and humid. But the lake itself has a sunny microclimate, 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 and Chile
Chico in Chile,
and Los Antiguos and Perito Moreno in Argentina.
The area near the coast of the lake was
first inhabited by criollos 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 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 and salmon fishing destination.
Geology
The lake was likely formed by tectonic
movements but the
present-day shape also much indebted to past glacier erosion.
The age of the lake depression is not known but certainly it did not exist 10
million years ago, and is possibly younger than 4 millions years. 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 an unusual geological formation located at the centre of the lake. 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