General
Carrera Lake (Chilean
side) 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.[2]
The lake is
of glacial
origin and is surrounded by the Andes mountain range. 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,
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.
The
Argentine side of the lake is relatively easy to access, through strip of
plains that was first used by the Tehuelches,
and then by explorer Francisco Moreno. The National Route 40, created in the 1920s,
also makes uses of it. The Chilean side of the lake has been mostly isolated,
and was for years accessed through Argentina, until the creation in the 1990s
of the Carretera Austral, which connected it to the
rest of Chile, and permitted the expansion of tourism in the area.
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 salmonidae
fishing destination.
Unusual
geological formation is Marble Caves with Marble Chapel and Marble Cathedral
located at the centre of the lake and representing a group of caverns, columns
and tunnels formed in monoliths of marble. Marble Caves have been formed by
wave action over the last 6,200 years.[3]
The Malvinas Islands are located in the lake.
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