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Lake Colhué Huapi

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197-592: Colhué Huapi is an intermittent lake located in the central Patagonian region of the Argentine Republic , south of the province of Chubut , and together with Lake Musters forms the terminal phase of the current endorheic basin of the Senguerr River . Both lakes are located in the Sarmiento Basin  [ es ] . In March 2017 the lake was almost completely dry, mainly due to

394-473: A de jure sovereignty over the area. In 1669, the district around Puerto Deseado was explored by John Davis and was claimed in 1670 by Sir John Narborough for King Charles II of England , but the English made no attempt to establish settlements or explore the interior. The first European explorers of Patagonia observed that the indigenous people in the region were taller than the average Europeans of

591-859: A dissected topography . The Antarctic Plate started to subduct beneath South America 14 million years ago in the Miocene, forming the Chile Triple Junction . At first, the Antarctic Plate subducted only in the southernmost tip of Patagonia, meaning that the Chile Triple Junction was located near the Strait of Magellan . As the southern part of the Nazca Plate and the Chile Rise became consumed by subduction,

788-522: A Patagonian landscape; the presence of austral parakeets ( Enicognathus ferrugineus ) as far south as the shores of the strait attracted the attention of the earlier navigators, and green-backed firecrowns ( Sephanoides sephaniodes ), a species of hummingbird , may be seen flying amid the snowfall. One of the largest birds in the world, the Andean condor ( Vultur gryphus ) can be seen in Patagonia. Of

985-426: A consequence, the weather tends to be sunny, dry and stable with a minimal chance of rainfall. Subsiding, diverging, dry air masses associated with subtropical high-pressure systems are extremely unfavorable for the development of convectional showers. The subtropical ridge is the predominant factor that explains the hot desert climate ( Köppen climate classification BWh ) of this vast region. The descending airflow

1182-419: A derivation meaning "land of the big feet". However, this etymology is questionable. The term is most likely derived from an actual character name, "Patagón", a savage creature confronted by Primaleón of Greece, the hero in the homonymous Spanish chivalry novel (or knight-errantry tale ) by Francisco Vázquez. This book, published in 1512, was the sequel of the romance Palmerín de Oliva ;it was much in vogue at

1379-560: A difficult winter at what he named Puerto San Julián before resuming its voyage further south on 21 August 1520. During this time, it encountered the local inhabitants, likely to be Tehuelche people , described by his reporter, Antonio Pigafetta, as giants called Patagons . The territory became the Spanish colony of the Governorate of New Léon, granted in 1529 to Governor Simón de Alcazaba y Sotomayor  [ es ] , part of

1576-566: A draft declaration. He presented data to warn of the dramatic situation. It was reported that in 1996 the extension of the lake was 55,312 hectares. In 2016 it only reached 21,431, according to a report prepared by the Environmental Management Group of the INTA Experimental Station, Chubut headquarters. The senator explained that the water deficit is partly due to natural characteristics that cause

1773-622: A dying lake was captured almost dry. In its analysis, the space agency described the Colhué as a very shallow lake to the point of disappearing into a beige and brown landscape. Finally, a series of data was provided, such as the increase in dust deposition on the Antarctic Peninsula correlated with the introduction of sheep to Patagonia around 1935 and the nutritional benefit of dust to marine waters. In 2016 it dried up completely thanks to basin drought and overuse for irrigation (that of

1970-460: A former railway station town located in the southeast of the Sarmiento valley. The Colhué in the 1970s was a great place for sport fishing and also for commercial fishing, the fishermen who sold in the village took their livelihood from the Colhué. The lake gradually lost its commercial fishing, which used boats. The economic activity originated by fishing became important despite the fact that it

2167-581: A fruit production establishment for export belonging to the Bulgheroni family (known for its majority stake in the company Bridas and for controlling, together with British Petroleum , the oil company Pan American Energy (PAE), the main oil company in Chubut). By March 2017, the IPA decided not to fine or take action against anyone, and even refused to verify the existence of the illegal embankments. Faced with

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2364-519: A healthy adult. The Saharan silver ant is unique in that due to the extreme high temperatures of their habitat, and the threat of predators, the ants are active outside their nest for only about ten minutes per day. Dromedary camels and goats are the domesticated animals most commonly found in the Sahara. Because of its qualities of endurance and speed, the dromedary is the favourite animal used by nomads . Human activities are more likely to affect

2561-765: A horseriding lifestyle. While the interest of the Spanish Empire had been chiefly to keep other European powers away from Patagonia, independent Chile and Argentina began to colonize the territory slowly over the course of the 19th and early 20th centuries. This process brought a decline of the indigenous populations, whose lives and habitats were disrupted, while at the same time thousands of Europeans, Argentines, Chilotes and mainland Chileans settled in Patagonia. The contemporary economy of eastern Patagonia revolves around sheep farming and oil and gas extraction, while in western Patagonia fishing , salmon aquaculture , and tourism dominate. The name Patagonia comes from

2758-649: A hunter-gathered lifestyle. The indigenous peoples of the region included the Tehuelches , whose numbers and society were reduced to near extinction not long after the first contacts with Europeans. Tehuelches included the Gununa'kena to the north, Mecharnuekenk in south-central Patagonia, and the Aonikenk or Southern Tehuelche in the far south, north of the Magellan strait. On Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego ,

2955-475: A large amount of zooplankton of a significant size (among the largest of the Argentinean lakes). This contributed to the abundance of food for perch and silversides, which in turn prevented them from preying on each other. In the 1990s the lake could be seen to be moving further and further away. When the drought hit in the 2000s, the nearby ranches were gradually covered with sand from the lake, depopulating

3152-488: A large number of hadrosaur remains. Ten thousand years ago, the Colhué Huapi and the neighbouring lake Musters formed a single lake. As a result, today's Mocha and Chica peninsulas were large islands. The ancient body of water was called Paleolake Sarmiento and its elevation reached over 326 m.a.s.l. (60 metres above the present level of Lake Musters). Subsequently, it declined and it is estimated that before 1600 BC

3349-609: A part of the Los Lagos Region , is also located within Patagonia. By some definitions, Chiloé Archipelago, the rest of the Los Lagos Region, and part of the Los Ríos Region are also part of Patagonia. Patagonia's climate is mostly cool and dry year round. The east coast is warmer than the west, especially in summer, as a branch of the southern equatorial current reaches its shores, whereas the west coast

3546-447: A period of severe drought. This is a product of evaporation due to natural causes and undoubtedly human action was a factor that contributed to the watercourse disappearing faster. As the lake suffers the absence of liquid due to the great droughts, it leaves its bottom uncovered; then the winds form dunes that further erode the environment. As a major consequence this wind lashes the entire surrounding rural area and distant points such as

3743-422: A region of steppe -like plains, rising in a succession of 13 abrupt terraces about 100 m (330 ft) at a time, and covered with an enormous bed of shingle almost bare of vegetation. In the hollows of the plains are ponds or lakes of fresh and brackish water. Towards Chilean territory, the shingle gives way to porphyry , granite , and basalt lavas, and animal life becomes more abundant. Vegetation

3940-430: A result of several human interventions in this basin, intake works have been carried out to feed drinking water aqueducts from Lake Musters, and irrigation canalisations and the transfer of large volumes of water from the Senguerr River to the secondary phase exploitation of the numerous oil wells in the region. All this aggravated the already compromised hydrological balance of the system to the limits of quasi-collapse in

4137-754: A site for the conservation of marine mammals . The Patagonian freshwater fish fauna is relatively restricted compared to other similar Southern Hemisphere regions. The Argentine part is home to a total of 29 freshwater fish species, 18 of which are native. The introduced are several species of trout , common carp , and various species that originated in more northerly parts of South America. The natives are osmeriforms ( Aplochiton and Galaxias ), temperate perches ( Percichthys ), catfish ( Diplomystes , Hatcheria and Trichomycterus ), Neotropical silversides ( Odontesthes ) and characiforms ( Astyanax , Cheirodon , Gymnocharacinus , and Oligosarcus ). Other Patagonian freshwater fauna include

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4334-569: A summer rainy season that extends across Africa from east to west. The southern limit of the Sahara is indicated botanically by the southern limit of Cornulaca monacantha (a drought-tolerant member of the Chenopodiaceae ), or northern limit of Cenchrus biflorus , a grass typical of the Sahel. According to climatic criteria, the southern limit of the Sahara corresponds to the 150 mm (5.9 in) isohyet of annual precipitation (this

4531-542: A surface feature of Earth, with near-current technology. The Sahara is mainly rocky hamada (stone plateaus); ergs (sand seas – large areas covered with sand dunes ) form only a minor part, contrary to common misconception , but many of the sand dunes are over 180 metres (590 ft) high. Wind or rare rainfall shape the desert features: sand dunes, dune fields, sand seas, stone plateaus, gravel plains ( reg ), dry valleys ( wadi ), dry lakes ( oued ), and salt flats ( shatt or chott ). Unusual landforms include

4728-472: A temperature of −25   °C has been recorded in Bariloche, and most places can often have temperatures between −12 and −15   °C and highs staying around 0   °C for a few days. Directly east of these areas, the weather becomes much harsher; precipitation drops to between 150 and 300 mm, the mountains no longer protect the cities from the wind, and temperatures become more extreme. Maquinchao

4925-422: A very diverse fauna. The lake was in good health with almost its entire surface covered by water from 2004 to 2010. A scientific study by S. Gasso and O. Torres found a series of periods of dust storm activity lasting approximately 2 to 10 years each, with the most dusty years being 1970-1976, 1989-1994, 1996-1997 and 1999-2017. In 2002 the lake farms were active and the lake had not yet completely disappeared. In

5122-636: Is a unitary state , its first-level administrative divisions—the regions—enjoy far less autonomy than analogous Argentine provinces. Argentine provinces have elected governors and legislatures, while Chilean regions had government-appointed intendants prior to the adoption of elected governors from 2021. The Patagonian Provinces of Argentina are Neuquén , Río Negro , Chubut , Santa Cruz , and Tierra del Fuego . The southernmost part of Buenos Aires Province can also be considered part of Patagonia. The two Chilean regions undisputedly located entirely within Patagonia are Aysén and Magallanes . Palena Province ,

5319-484: Is a few hundred kilometers east of Bariloche, at the same altitude on a plateau, and summer daytime temperatures are usually about 5   °C warmer, rising up to 35   °C sometimes, but winter temperatures are much more extreme: the record is −35   °C, and some nights not uncommonly reach 10   °C colder than Bariloche. The plateaus in Santa Cruz province and parts of Chubut usually have snow cover through

5516-644: Is a geographical region that encompasses the southern end of South America , governed by Argentina and Chile . The region comprises the southern section of the Andes Mountains with lakes, fjords , temperate rainforests , and glaciers in the west and deserts , tablelands , and steppes to the east. Patagonia is bounded by the Pacific Ocean on the west, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and many bodies of water that connect them, such as

5713-660: Is a long-term average, since precipitation varies annually). Important cities located in the Sahara include Nouakchott , the capital of Mauritania; Tamanrasset , Ouargla , Béchar , Hassi Messaoud , Ghardaïa , and El Oued in Algeria; Timbuktu in Mali; Agadez in Niger; Ghat in Libya; and Faya-Largeau in Chad. The Sahara is the world's largest hot desert . It is located in

5910-422: Is a north African gazelle that can also go for a long time without water. Other notable gazelles include the rhim gazelle and dama gazelle . The Saharan cheetah ( northwest African cheetah ) lives in Algeria, Togo , Niger, Mali, Benin , and Burkina Faso . There remain fewer than 250 mature cheetahs, which are very cautious, fleeing any human presence. The cheetah avoids the sun from April to October, seeking

6107-629: Is a prehistoric industry, or domain, that existed between 10,000 and 8,000 years ago in the Sahara, during the Neolithic Subpluvial . Human remains from this culture were found in 2000 at a site known as Gobero , located in Niger in the Ténéré Desert . The site is known as the largest and earliest grave of Stone Age people in the Sahara. The Kiffians were skilled hunters . Bones of many large savannah animals that were discovered in

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6304-462: Is actually what the wind erupts from the lake bed. As a result, the population suffers constantly from allergy, respiratory and eye problems. Since 12 May 2013, the intense clouds of dust that rise from the lake, pass through the agglomeration of Comodoro Rivadavia and culminate in the San Jorge Gulf have attracted the attention of NASA . In the meantime, by means of its Aqua satellite ,

6501-465: Is associated with high rates of wind-blown mineral dust, and these dust levels are found as expected in marine cores from the north tropical Atlantic. But around 12,500 BCE the amount of dust in the cores in the Bølling / Allerød phase suddenly plummets and shows a period of much wetter conditions in the Sahara, indicating a Dansgaard-Oeschger (DO) event (a sudden warming followed by a slower cooling of

6698-505: Is called "Camwy" in Patagonian Welsh. Chupat, Chubut and Camwy have the same meaning and are used to talk about the river and the province. Welsh settlers and placenames are associated with one of the projects of the country of Wales, Project Hiraeth. Due to the language, culture and location, many Patagonians do not consider themselves Latinos and proudly call themselves Patagonians instead. People from Y Wladfa, Laurie Island,

6895-497: Is caused principally by the sudden melting and retreat of ice aided by tectonic changes, has scooped out a deep longitudinal depression, best in evidence where in contact with folded Cretaceous rocks, which are lifted up by the Cenozoic granite. It generally separates the plateau from the first lofty hills, whose ridges are generally called the pre-Cordillera. To the west of these, a similar longitudinal depression extends all along

7092-593: Is commonly diverted to irrigate farms in the south of the Sarmiento valley. This, together with the fact that the asphalt road blocked an old delta that drained into the centre of the Colhué Huapi, contributed to the drying up of the lake. Lake Colhué Huapi has extensive shoreline mudflats, mainly along the entire range of channels and inlets provided by the Falso Senguerr River. It is separated from Lake Musters by an isthmus of land about 12 km wide and 695 m above sea level. Although these two great lakes of

7289-412: Is deeper. Another factor in the success of the fishery is explained by scientific studies that analysed the silt and zooplankton in the lake in the 1980s. The findings led to it being labelled as an oasis of productivity around an arid territory. Being shallow (an average of two metres during the studies), the wind caused the soil to be stirred up, so the water had more nutrients, which in turn generated

7486-813: Is derived from Arabic : صَحَارَى , romanized :  ṣaḥārā /sˤaħaːraː/ , a broken plural form of ṣaḥrā' ( صَحْرَاء /sˤaħraːʔ/ ), meaning "desert". The desert covers much of North Africa , excluding the fertile region on the Mediterranean Sea coast, the Atlas Mountains of the Maghreb , and the Nile Valley in Egypt and the Sudan . It stretches from the Red Sea in

7683-403: Is estimated to include five hundred species of plants, which is extremely low considering the huge extent of the area. Plants such as acacia trees, palms, succulents, spiny shrubs, and grasses have adapted to the arid conditions, by growing lower to avoid water loss by strong winds, by storing water in their thick stems to use it in dry periods, by having long roots that travel horizontally to reach

7880-565: Is fed by Andean meltwater regulated at its headwaters by the Fontana  [ es ] and La Plata lakes  [ es ] . After travelling 350 km from these mountain slopes through the central plateau of the province of Chubut, this river brings an average annual flow of 54 m/s to the entire lower Sarmiento basin. Upon entering this alluvial and eolian plain, the Senguerr subdivides into numerous secondary branches (generally dry) in

8077-490: Is more luxuriant, consisting principally of southern beech and conifers . The high rainfall against the western Andes ( Wet Andes ) and the low sea-surface temperatures offshore give rise to cold and humid air masses, contributing to the ice fields and glaciers , the largest ice fields in the Southern Hemisphere outside of Antarctica. Among the depressions by which the plateau is intersected transversely,

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8274-430: Is of special interest from the point of view of biodiversity conservation, due to the presence of three autochthonous species of fish, the first two in danger of extinction: the toad catfish ( Diplomystres viedmensis mesembrinus ), the puyén ( Galaxias platei ), and the large-mouthed perch ( Percichthys colhuehuapensis ). In addition, its coasts were once covered with thick reed beds that were home to otters and

8471-667: Is the strongest and the most effective over the eastern part of the Great Desert, in the Libyan Desert: this is the sunniest, driest and the most nearly "rainless" place on the planet, rivaling the Atacama Desert , lying in Chile and Peru . The rainfall inhibition and the dissipation of cloud cover are most accentuated over the eastern section of the Sahara rather than the western. The prevailing air mass lying above

8668-641: Is very scarce. The weather only gets a bit colder further south in Chubut, and the city of Comodoro Rivadavia has summer temperatures of 24 to 28   °C, nights of 12 to 16   °C, and winters with days around 10   °C and nights around 3   °C, and less than 250 mm of rain. However, a drastic drop occurs as one moves south to Santa Cruz; Rio Gallegos, in the south of the province, has summer temps of 17 to 21   °C, (nights between 6 and 10   °C) and winter temperatures of 2 to 6   °C, with nights between −5 and 0   °C, despite being right on

8865-422: Is very unreliable and erratic in the Sahara as it may vary considerably year by year. In full contrast to the negligible annual rainfall amounts, the annual rates of potential evaporation are extraordinarily high, roughly ranging from 2,500 millimetres (100 in) per year to more than 6,000 millimetres (240 in) per year in the whole desert. Nowhere else on Earth has air been found as dry and evaporative as in

9062-460: Is washed by a cold current. However, winters are colder on the inland plateaus east of the slopes and further down the coast on the southeast end of the Patagonian region. For example, at Puerto Montt , on the inlet behind Chiloé Island, the mean annual temperature is 11 °C (52 °F) and the average extremes are 25.5 and −1.5 °C (77.9 and 29.3 °F), whereas at Bahía Blanca near

9259-543: The Adrar of Mauritania and a value of 75 °C (167 °F) has been measured in Borkou , northern Chad. Due to lack of cloud cover and very low humidity, the desert usually has high diurnal temperature variations between days and nights. However, it is a myth that the nights are especially cold after extremely hot days in the Sahara. On average, nighttime temperatures tend to be 13–20 °C (23–36 °F) cooler than in

9456-488: The Algerian Desert called Bou Bernous , at an elevation of 378 metres (1,240 ft) above sea level, and only Death Valley, California rivals it. Other hot spots in Algeria such as Adrar , Timimoun , In Salah , Ouallene , Aoulef , Reggane with an elevation between 200 and 400 metres (660 and 1,310 ft) above sea level get slightly lower summer average highs, around 46 °C (114.8 °F) during

9653-568: The Chubut River . This intermittent natural regulating process occurred for the last time in 1939, and since then the Chico River has been a large watercourse practically dry along most of its course. In spite of the extreme turbidity of its waters, the Colhué Huapi has an abundant aquatic fauna composed mainly of perch ( Percichthys trucha ) and Patagonian silverside ( Odontesthes microlepidotus ). Likewise, this unique environment

9850-577: The Cuncos (also known as Veliches) settled in Chiloé Island in Pre-Hispanic times as a consequence of a push from more northern Huilliches who in turn were being displaced by Mapuches . While being outside traditional Huilliche territory the western Patagonian volcanoes Michimahuida , Hornopirén and Chaitén have Huilliche etymologies. In Chubut Province modern toponymy comes from

10047-803: The Early Holocene (c. 9000 years BP ) much in the same way that Riesco Island was back then. A Selk'nam tradition recorded by the Salesian missionary Giuseppe María Beauvoir relate that the Selk'nam arrived in Tierra del Fuego by land, and that the Selk'nam were later unable to return north as the sea had flooded their crossing. Agriculture was practised in Pre-Hispanic Argentina as far south as southern Mendoza Province . Agriculture

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10244-667: The Governorates of the Spanish Empire of the Americas. The territory was redefined in 1534 and consisted of the southernmost part of the South American continent and the islands towards Antarctica. Rodrigo de Isla , sent inland in 1535 from San Matías by Simón de Alcazaba y Sotomayor (on whom western Patagonia had been conferred by Charles I of Spain , is presumed to have been the first European to have traversed

10441-728: The Lake Musters recovered the level that had dropped by 1.45 m and the Chico River flowed again to reach the Chubut at the Ameghino dam. In recent years, with the authorisation of the Provincial Water Institute of the Province of Chubut (IPA), the waters of the Senguerr River were almost completely diverted by means of clandestine embankments to irrigate fruit crops. This caused the watercourse to dry up:

10638-765: The Late Pleistocene Iberomaurusians , early Holocene Capsians , and mid-Holocene Mechta groups, whereas the Tenerian crania are more like those of Mediterranean groups. Graves show that the Tenerians observed spiritual traditions, as they were buried with artifacts such as jewelry made of hippo tusks and clay pots. The most interesting find is a triple burial, dated to 5300 years ago, of an adult female and two children, estimated through their teeth as being five and eight years old, hugging each other. Pollen residue indicates they were buried on

10835-453: The Mapuche language ( Mapudungun ). The word Colhué means "red or reddish place". On the other hand, Huapi refers to "island". Thus, it can be assumed that the ancient inhabitants of the region called this lake this way in allusion to one of its rocky islands, or because of the clay colour of the water. It may also be a Mapuche expression meaning lake of the brown island . The same name

11032-522: The Patagonian mara ( Dolichotis patagonum ) are also characteristic of the steppe and the pampas to the north. The fauna of Patagonia was heavily decimated by the end-Pleistocene extinction event around 12-10,000 years ago that resulted in the extinction of most large ( megafaunal ) animal species native to the region (as well as across the Americas). Species formerly present in the region include

11229-581: The Patagonian plateau present notorious geo-hydrological differences between them, it is inevitable to study them together, since they are part of the same chained water system. While the Musters is of tectonic origin and has an average depth of 20m, Lake Colhué Huapi is very shallow (2m average), has a very high turbidity in its waters due to a high concentration of suspended sediments, mainly due to wind action, and can be considered an argylotrophic lake due to its level of nutrients and inorganic sediments. In

11426-453: The Richat Structure in Mauritania. Several deeply dissected mountains, many volcanic, rise from the desert, including the Aïr Mountains , Ahaggar Mountains , Saharan Atlas , Tibesti Mountains , Adrar des Iforas , and the Red Sea Hills . The highest peak in the Sahara is Emi Koussi , a shield volcano in the Tibesti range of northern Chad. The central Sahara is hyperarid , with sparse vegetation. The northern and southern reaches of

11623-399: The Selk'nam (Ona) and Haush (Manek'enk) lived in the north and southeast, respectively. In the archipelagos to the south of Tierra del Fuego were Yámana, with the Kawéskar (Alakaluf) in the coastal areas and islands in western Tierra del Fuego and the southwest of the mainland. In the Patagonian archipelagoes north of Taitao Peninsula lived the Chonos . These groups were encountered in

11820-451: The Strait of Magellan , the Beagle Channel , and the Drake Passage to the south. The Colorado and Barrancas rivers, which run from the Andes to the Atlantic, are commonly considered the northern limit of Argentine Patagonia. The archipelago of Tierra del Fuego is sometimes included as part of Patagonia. Most geographers and historians locate the northern limit of Chilean Patagonia at Huincul Fault , in Araucanía Region . At

12017-630: The Tibesti Mountains , the Aïr Mountains , the Ténéré desert, and the Libyan Desert . For several hundred thousand years, the Sahara has alternated between desert and savanna grassland in a 20,000-year cycle caused by the precession of Earth's axis (about 26,000 years) as it rotates around the Sun, which changes the location of the North African monsoon . The Sahara covers large parts of Algeria , Chad , Egypt , Libya , Mali , Mauritania , Niger , Western Sahara and Sudan , and parts of southern Morocco and Tunisia . It covers 9 million square kilometres (3,500,000 sq mi), 31% of

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12214-471: The Yagagtoo , Musters , and Colhue Huapi , and others situated to the south of Puerto Deseado in the center of the country. Across much of Patagonia east of the Andes, volcanic eruptions have created formation of basaltic lava plateaus during the Cenozoic . The plateaus are of different ages with the older –of Neogene and Paleogene age– being located at higher elevations than Pleistocene and Holocene lava plateaus and outcrops. Erosion, which

12411-474: The horse latitudes under the subtropical ridge , a significant belt of semi-permanent subtropical warm-core high pressure where the air from the upper troposphere usually descends, warming and drying the lower troposphere and preventing cloud formation. The permanent absence of clouds allows unhindered light and thermal radiation. The stability of the atmosphere above the desert prevents any convective overturning, thus making rainfall virtually non-existent. As

12608-454: The metropolitan area of Comodoro Rivadavia  [ es ] on the Argentine Sea . The lake remains dry most of the year, with the exception of the few wetter months, which together with improvements in water abstraction policies means that the Falso Senguer drains part of its flow into the lake. This causes the fields near the lake to see a small lake intermittently until the summer season. The name of this great water mirror comes from

12805-495: The patagon personage in the chivalric romances Primaleon printed in 1512, ten years before Magellan arrived in these southern lands. This hypothesis was published in a 2011 New Review of Spanish Philology report. There are various placenames in the Chiloé Archipelago with Chono etymologies despite the main indigenous language of the archipelago at the arrival of the Spanish being Mapudungun . A theory postulated by chronicler José Pérez García explains this holding that

13002-430: The 1968 Cuadernos de Historia del Chubut he states: "This lake presented an unknown, because of which it was always surrounded by mystery. What happened to its waters? Did they infiltrate? [...] as soon as the flows of the Senguer diminished, in Lake Colhué Huapi its great downpours began again, leaving enormous sandbanks uncovered". In 1914, the Colhué Huapi station  [ es ] was established only 20 km from

13199-409: The 20th century, before the great droughts that left the lake empty, tales of the monster were still heard. The lake was explored by the Rifleros del Chubut  [ es ] in 1886. Western civilisation occupied the margins of the lake in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Thus, the colonists settled where other past civilisations had previously developed. The children of the peoples of

13396-557: The 40th parallel, they found a "land" or a "point extending into the sea", and further south, a gulf. The expedition is said to have rounded the gulf for nearly 300 km (186 mi) and sighted the continent on the southern side of the gulf. The Atlantic coast of Patagonia was first fully explored in 1520 by the Spanish expedition led by Ferdinand Magellan , who on his passage along the coast named many of its more striking features – San Matías Gulf, Cape of 11,000 Virgins (now simply Cape Virgenes ), and others. Magellan's fleet spent

13593-400: The African continent. If all areas with a mean annual precipitation of less than 250 mm (9.8 in) were included, the Sahara would be 11 million square kilometres (4,200,000 sq mi). It is one of three distinct physiographic provinces of the African massive physiographic division . The Sahara is so large and bright that, in theory, it could be detected from other stars as

13790-417: The African humid period. At its largest extent, sometime before 5000 BCE, Lake Mega-Chad was the largest of four Saharan paleolakes, and is estimated to have covered an area of 350,000 km . The Sahara pump theory describes this cycle. During periods of a wet or " Green Sahara ", the Sahara becomes a savanna grassland and various flora and fauna become more common. Following inter-pluvial arid periods,

13987-438: The Atlantic Islands, Antarctica (including the Chilean town in Antarctica, "The Stars Village", and the Argentine civilian settlement, "Hope Base"), other non-latin speaking areas use this term as a patriotic and inclusive demonym. A Patagonian is a person that is part of the Patagonia region, language and culture. That person could be a citizen from Chilean Patagonia, Argentine Patagonia, or of native communities that existed before

14184-487: The Atlantic coast and just outside the northern confines of Patagonia, the annual temperature is 15 °C (59 °F) and the range much greater, as temperatures above 35   °C and below −5   °C are recorded every year. At Punta Arenas, in the extreme south, the mean temperature is 6 °C (43 °F) and the average extremes are 24.5 and −2 °C (76.1 and 28.4 °F). The prevailing winds are westerly, and

14381-478: The Atlantic coast of Patagonia. The geological limit of Patagonia has been proposed to be Huincul Fault , which forms a major discontinuity. The fault truncates various structures including the Pampean orogen found further north. The ages of base rocks change abruptly across the fault. Discrepancies have been mentioned among geologists on the origin of the Patagonian landmass. Víctor Ramos has proposed that

14578-455: The Atlantic coast, through the Strait of Magellan and northward along the Pacific coast, was memorable, yet the descriptions of the geography of Patagonia owe much more to the Spanish explorer Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa (1579–1580), who, devoting himself especially to the south-west region, made careful and accurate surveys. The settlements that he founded at Nombre de Jesús and San Felipe

14775-527: The Colhué Huapi was in 2006 with almost 77,000 hectares. By 2015 it had lost 70% of that area. The situation worsened since 2006 as a work was built to prevent the Senguerr River from flowing into the Falso Senguerr, forcing it to contribute almost all of its flow to Lake Musters and feed the Falso Senguerr with ecological flows to keep it active. In late 2013 a project was announced to regulate

14972-404: The Colhué Huapi, in which there is an increasing decrease of its historical levels, and an accelerated process of retraction and drying up in its periphery. The water balance of the entire basin has been negative for the last seventy years. The current situation could be defined as highly compromised, and constitutes the main environmental threat to maintain the precarious hydro-biological balance of

15169-473: The Grande peninsula, seen from a distance from the lake shores, appears to be very high and rocky at the top. However, it consists of a superposition of sand and clay hills no more than 300 metres high in relation to the lake. At its southern end it decreases in height until it culminates in coarse sandy beaches, on which there is a scattering of medium-sized rocks, polished by the earthy wind. Other highlights on

15366-412: The Great Desert the hottest large region in the world, and the hottest place on Earth during summer in some spots. The average high temperature exceeds 38 to 40 °C (100.4 to 104.0 °F) during the hottest month nearly everywhere in the desert except at very high altitudes. The world's highest officially recorded average daily high temperature was 47 °C (116.6 °F) in a remote desert town in

15563-486: The Intertropical Convergence Zone from the south and the annual average rainfall ranges from 100 millimetres (4 in) to 250 millimetres (10 in). For example, Timbuktu, Mali and Agadez , Niger are found in this zone. The vast central hyper-arid core of the desert is virtually never affected by northerly or southerly atmospheric disturbances and permanently remains under the influence of

15760-523: The Kiffian culture do not exist after 8,000 years ago, as the Sahara went through a dry period for the next thousand years. After this time, the Tenerian culture colonized the area. Gobero was discovered in 2000 during an archaeological expedition led by Paul Sereno , which sought dinosaur remains. Two distinct prehistoric cultures were discovered at the site: the early Holocene Kiffian culture, and

15957-554: The Patagonian landmass originated as an allochthonous terrane that separated from Antarctica and docked in South America 250 to 270 Mya in the Permian period. A 2014 study by R.J. Pankhurst and coworkers rejects any idea of a far-traveled Patagonia, claiming it is likely of parautochtonous (nearby) origin. The Mesozoic and Cenozoic deposits have revealed a most interesting vertebrate fauna. This, together with

16154-422: The Patagonian plains. The Patagonian steppe is one of the last strongholds of the guanaco and Darwin's rheas ( Rhea pennata ), which had been hunted for their skins by the Tehuelches , on foot using boleadoras , before the diffusion of firearms and horses ; they were formerly the chief means of subsistence for the natives, who hunted them on horseback with dogs and bolas . Vizcachas ( Lagidum spp.) and

16351-487: The Patagonians as "roaring like bulls"). Sahara The Sahara ( / s ə ˈ h ɑːr ə / , / s ə ˈ h ær ə / ) is a desert spanning across North Africa . With an area of 9,200,000 square kilometres (3,600,000 sq mi), it is the largest hot desert in the world and the third-largest desert overall, smaller only than the deserts of Antarctica and the northern Arctic . The name "Sahara"

16548-521: The Sahara (birds in particular) such as African silverbill and black-faced firefinch , among others. There are also small desert crocodiles in Mauritania and the Ennedi Plateau of Chad. The deathstalker scorpion can be 10 cm (3.9 in) long. Its venom contains large amounts of agitoxin and scyllatoxin and is very dangerous; however, a sting from this scorpion rarely kills

16745-408: The Sahara area then reverts to desert conditions and the flora and fauna are forced to retreat northwards to the Atlas Mountains , southwards into West Africa , or eastwards into the Nile Valley . This separates populations of some of the species in areas with different climates , forcing them to adapt , possibly giving rise to allopatric speciation . It is also proposed that humans accelerated

16942-528: The Sahara is strongly influenced by the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), with warmer winter temperatures during negative NAO events and cooler winters with more frosts when the NAO is positive. This is because the weaker clockwise flow around the eastern side of the subtropical anticyclone during negative NAO winters, although too dry to produce more than negligible precipitation, does reduce

17139-504: The Sahara is the continental tropical (cT) air mass, which is hot and dry. Hot, dry air masses primarily form over the North-African desert from the heating of the vast continental land area, and it affects the whole desert during most of the year. Because of this extreme heating process, a thermal low is usually noticed near the surface, and is the strongest and the most developed during the summertime. The Sahara High represents

17336-638: The Sahara region. However, at least two instances of snowfall have been recorded in Sahara, in February 1979 and December 2016, both in the town of Ain Sefra . One theory for the formation of the Sahara is that the monsoon in Northern Africa was weakened because of glaciation during the Quaternary period, starting two or three million years ago. Another theory is that the monsoon was weakened when

17533-634: The Senguer River and its tributaries). The problem became nationally known, due to the discovery of a missing plane in the dry riverbed in 1964. In the same period its two tributaries were dry: the Falso Senguer and the Zanjón del Cerro Negro (which is an arm of the Senguer and drains into the southern shore of the lake). Faced with this situation, Alfredo H. Luenzo , then national senator, made

17730-713: The Tassili n'Ajjer in southeast Algeria. Fossils of dinosaurs , including Afrovenator , Jobaria and Ouranosaurus , have also been found here. The modern Sahara, though, is not lush in vegetation, except in the Nile Valley, at a few oases , and in the northern highlands, where Mediterranean plants such as the olive tree are found to grow. Shifts in Earth's axis increased temperatures and decreased precipitation, which caused an abrupt beginning of North Africa desertification about 5,400 years ago. The Kiffian culture

17927-595: The amount of rainfall received – the Northern (Mediterranean), Central and Southern Zones. There are two transitional zones – the Mediterranean-Sahara transition and the Sahel transition zone. The Saharan flora comprises around 2800 species of vascular plants . Approximately a quarter of these are endemic . About half of these species are common to the flora of the Arabian deserts. The central Sahara

18124-612: The ancient Tethys Sea dried up during the Tortonian period around 7 million years ago. The climate of the Sahara has undergone enormous variations between wet and dry over the last few hundred thousand years, believed to be caused by long-term changes in the North African climate cycle that alters the path of the North African Monsoon – usually southward. The cycle is caused by a 41,000-year cycle in which

18321-437: The area there were several rural boliche alleys, which no longer exist. When the lake was in full flow, its waters could flood the provincial route 24. The image of the lake was gloomy with dark waters and several islets a short distance from the shore. Due to its large surface area and shallow depth, Lake Colhué Huapi is naturally subject to a severe evaporation process, both by wind and solar radiation . In addition, and as

18518-425: The area. Fishing, which had flourished in the 1970s, continued towards the end of the 1990s with exports to other cities in the region. It ceased to be received because the fish tasted muddy due to the continuous lowering of the lake. Thus, the modern fishing that began among the settlers shortly after arriving and settling on its banks and nearby came to an end. However, it left numerous traces of its activity all along

18715-444: The artificial diversion of water from the Senguerr River and, to a lesser extent, to the drought that has been raging since 2000. It lies at an altitude of 310 m a.s.l. and the greatest width is 35 to 40 km from northwest to southeast. Despite its large surface area when full, the lake is considered by many to be a giant lagoon because of its shallow depth. In the last 30 years the lake and the whole area around it have been experiencing

18912-421: The atmospheric circulation itself, the desert is made even drier by its geographical configuration and location. Indeed, the extreme aridity of the Sahara is not only explained by the subtropical high pressure: the Atlas Mountains of Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia also help to enhance the aridity of the northern part of the desert. These major mountain ranges act as a barrier, causing a strong rain shadow effect on

19109-795: The border with Chile, receives up to 434 mm of rain and snow in May, 297 mm in June, and 273 in July, compared to 80 in February and 72 in March. The total for the city is 2074 mm, making it one of the rainiest in Argentina. Further west, some areas receive up to 4,000 mm and more, especially on the Chilean side. In the northeast, the seasons for rain are reversed; most rain falls from occasional summer thunderstorms but totals barely reach 500 mm in

19306-616: The climate). The moister Saharan conditions had begun about 12,500 BCE, with the extension of the ITCZ northward in the northern hemisphere summer, bringing moist wet conditions and a savanna climate to the Sahara, which (apart from a short dry spell associated with the Younger Dryas ) peaked during the Holocene thermal maximum climatic phase at 4000 BCE when mid-latitude temperatures seem to have been between 2 and 3 degrees warmer than in

19503-644: The coast in the north but happens more often in the south, and frost is usually not very intense. Immediately east from the coast are the Andes, cut by deep fjords in the south and by deep lakes in the north, and with varying temperatures according to the altitude. The tree line ranges from close to 2,000 m on the northern side (except for the Andes in northern Neuquén in Argentina, where sunnier and dryer conditions allow trees to grow up to close to 3,000 m), and diminishes southward to only 600–800   m in Tierra del Fuego. Precipitation changes dramatically from one spot to

19700-420: The coast. Snowfall is common despite the dryness, and temperatures are known to fall to under −18   °C and to remain below freezing for several days in a row. Rio Gallegos is also among the windiest places on Earth, with winds reaching 100 km/h occasionally. Tierra del Fuego is extremely wet in the west, relatively damp in the south, and dry in the north and east. Summers are cool (13 to 18   °C in

19897-608: The coastline of Patagonia is possibly mentioned in a Portuguese voyage in 1511–1512, traditionally attributed to captain Diogo Ribeiro, who after his death was replaced by Estevão de Frois, and was guided by the pilot and cosmographer João de Lisboa ). The explorers, after reaching Rio de la Plata (which they would explore on the return voyage, contacting the Charrúa and other peoples) eventually reached San Matias Gulf , at 42°S. The expedition reported that after going south of

20094-424: The crew. Although the bodies were quickly found, the aircraft had never been recovered. Despite having no aboriginal presence for a long time, even in recent years the shores of the lake still provide archaeological remains of the tribes that inhabited the area. Nowadays, the prolonged drought has ruined all the production in the area and closed many of the estancias and boliches that catered to travellers along

20291-474: The daytime. The smallest variations are found along the coastal regions due to high humidity and are often even lower than a 10 °C (18 °F) difference, while the largest variations are found in inland desert areas where the humidity is the lowest, mainly in the southern Sahara. Still, it is true that winter nights can be cold, as it can drop to the freezing point and even below, especially in high-elevation areas. The frequency of subfreezing winter nights in

20488-469: The desert experiences around three to five months when the average high strictly exceeds 40 °C (104 °F); while in the southern central part of the desert, there are up to six or seven months when the average high temperature strictly exceeds 40 °C (104 °F). Some examples of this are Bilma , Niger and Faya-Largeau, Chad. The annual average daily temperature exceeds 20 °C (68 °F) everywhere and can approach 30 °C (86 °F) in

20685-643: The desert, along with the highlands, have areas of sparse grassland and desert shrub , with trees and taller shrubs in wadis , where moisture collects. In the central, hyperarid region, there are many subdivisions of the great desert: Tanezrouft , the Ténéré , the Libyan Desert , the Eastern Desert , the Nubian Desert and others. These extremely arid areas often receive no rain for years. To

20882-597: The details of which are as yet poorly understood. Several sites have been excavated, notably caves such as Cueva del Milodon in Última Esperanza in southern Patagonia, and Tres Arroyos on Tierra del Fuego, that support this date. Hearths, stone scrapers, and animal remains dated to 9400–9200 BC have been found east of the Andes. At the close of the Pleistocene around 12-11,000 years ago (10,000-9,000 BC) Fishtail projectile points (a type of knapped stone spear point) were widespread across Patagonia (along with much of

21079-652: The discovery of the perfect cranium of a turtle ( chelonian ) of the genus Niolamia , which is almost identical to Ninjemys oweni of the Pleistocene age in Queensland , forms an evident proof of the connection between the Australian and South American continents. The Patagonian Niolamia belongs to the Sarmienti Formation. Fossils of the mid-Cretaceous Argentinosaurus , which may be

21276-531: The drying-out period from 6000 to 2500 BCE by pastoralists overgrazing available grassland. The growth of speleothems (which requires rainwater) was detected in Hol-Zakh, Ashalim , Even-Sid, Ma'ale-ha-Meyshar, Ktora Cracks, Nagev Tzavoa Cave, and elsewhere, and has allowed tracking of prehistoric rainfall. The Red Sea coastal route was extremely arid before 140 and after 115 kya (thousands of years ago). Slightly wetter conditions appear at 90–87 kya, but it still

21473-595: The east and the Mediterranean in the north to the Atlantic Ocean in the west, where the landscape gradually changes from desert to coastal plains. To the south it is bounded by the Sahel , a belt of semi-arid tropical savanna around the Niger River valley and the Sudan region of sub-Saharan Africa . The Sahara can be divided into several regions, including the western Sahara, the central Ahaggar Mountains ,

21670-667: The eastern continental extension of the Azores High , centered over the North Atlantic Ocean . The subsidence of the Sahara High nearly reaches the ground during the coolest part of the year, while it is confined to the upper troposphere during the hottest periods. The effects of local surface low pressure are extremely limited because upper-level subsidence still continues to block any form of air ascent. Also, to be protected against rain-bearing weather systems by

21867-614: The edge of the desert thousands of years ago, since the end of the last glacial period . In the Central Sahara, engraved and painted rock art were created perhaps as early as 10,000 years ago, spanning the Bubaline Period , Kel Essuf Period , Round Head Period , Pastoral Period , Caballine Period , and Cameline Period . The Sahara was then a much wetter place than it is today. Over 30,000 petroglyphs of river animals such as crocodiles survive, with half found in

22064-414: The embankments took almost all the flow, and hardly any water reached the Colhué Huapi. At the beginning of 2017, a group of self-organised neighbours complained about the environmental deterioration to the IPA, which refused to recognise the seriousness of the problem. According to the neighbours of Sarmiento, the main reason for the drought of the Senguerr River and Lake Colhué Huapi is the diversion made by

22261-423: The evaporation process by wind action or solar radiation. In addition, there is a shortage of rainfall and environmental humidity. However, he called for recognition of the serious impact of anthropic actions on these freshwater mirrors, damaging the ecological balance of the area. It is necessary to recognise human responsibility and be aware of the negative consequences of the irrational use of water, contributing to

22458-399: The fact that the conditions of the lakes are becoming increasingly extreme, putting at risk the survival of the different species of native flora and fauna, threatening not only the regional economies, but also the health and quality of life of their inhabitants. On 3 November 2016, NASA's Aqua satellite again captured the vast cloud of dust that Colhué releases into the Atlantic. According to

22655-399: The first periods of European contact with different lifestyles, body decoration, and language, although it is unclear when this configuration emerged. Towards the end of the 16th century, Mapuche -speaking agriculturalists penetrated the western Andes and from there across into the eastern plains and down to the far south. Through confrontation and technological ability, they came to dominate

22852-484: The flow of dry, cold air from higher latitudes of Eurasia into the Sahara significantly. The average annual rainfall ranges from very low in the northern and southern fringes of the desert to nearly non-existent over the central and the eastern part. The thin northern fringe of the desert receives more winter cloudiness and rainfall due to the arrival of low pressure systems over the Mediterranean Sea along

23049-467: The foot of the snowy Andean Cordillera. This latter depression contains the richest, most fertile land of Patagonia. Lake basins along the Cordillera were also gradually excavated by ice streams, including Lake Argentino and Lake Fagnano , as well as coastal bays such as Bahía Inútil . The establishment of dams near the Andes in Argentina in the 20th century has led to a sediment shortage along

23246-419: The form of a fan that runs northeastward. Its main channel flows towards the tectonic trench of Lake Musters, entering it on its southern shore, and, shortly before reaching it, it splits again to also contribute to Lake Colhué Huapi, located a few kilometres to the east. This branch of the river that connects both lakes has been called " Falso Senguerr  [ es ] ", and its meandering course passes to

23443-500: The great Patagonian plain. If the men under his charge had not mutinied, he might have crossed the Andes to reach the Pacific coast. Pedro de Mendoza , on whom the country was next bestowed, founded Buenos Aires , but did not venture south. Alonso de Camargo  [ es ] (1539), Juan Ladrilleros (1557), and Hurtado de Mendoza (1558) helped to make known the Pacific coasts, and while Sir Francis Drake 's voyage in 1577 down

23640-699: The habitat in areas of permanent water (oases) or where water comes close to the surface. Here, the local pressure on natural resources can be intense. The remaining populations of large mammals have been greatly reduced by hunting for food and recreation. In recent years development projects have started in the deserts of Algeria and Tunisia using irrigated water pumped from underground aquifers. These schemes often lead to soil degradation and salinization . Researchers from Hacettepe University have reported that Saharan soil may have bio-available iron and also some essential macro and micro nutrient elements suitable for use as fertilizer for growing wheat. People lived on

23837-405: The highest recorded worldwide. The sky is usually clear above the desert, and the sunshine duration is extremely high everywhere in the Sahara. Most of the desert has more than 3,600 hours of bright sunshine per year (over 82% of daylight hours), and a wide area in the eastern part has over 4,000 hours of bright sunshine per year (over 91% of daylight hours). The highest values are very close to

24034-748: The highly unusual aeglid crustaceans. Human habitation of the region dates back thousands of years, with some early archaeological findings in the area dated to at least the 13th millennium BC , although later dates around the 10th millennium BC are more securely recognized. Evidence exists of human activity at Monte Verde in Llanquihue Province , Chile, dated to around 14,500 years Before Present (~12,500 BC). The glacial-period ice fields and subsequent large meltwater streams would have made settlement difficult at that time. The region seems to have been inhabited continuously since 10,000 BC by various cultures and alternating waves of migration,

24231-500: The hottest months of the year. Salah, well known in Algeria for its extreme heat, has average high temperatures of 43.8 °C (110.8 °F), 46.4 °C (115.5 °F), 45.5 °C (113.9 °F) and 41.9 °C (107.4 °F) in June, July, August and September respectively. There are even hotter spots in the Sahara, but they are located in extremely remote areas, especially in the Azalai , lying in northern Mali. The major part of

24428-491: The hottest regions year-round. However, most of the desert has a value in excess of 25 °C (77 °F). Sand and ground temperatures are even more extreme. During daytime, the sand temperature is extremely high: it can easily reach 80 °C (176 °F) or more. A sand temperature of 83.5 °C (182.3 °F) has been recorded in Port Sudan . Ground temperatures of 72 °C (161.6 °F) have been recorded in

24625-472: The lake are also accompanied by ancient extinct volcanoes . The lake is criss-crossed by several peninsulas and headlands. However, the most prominent is the Grande or Namuncurá peninsula. This peninsula divides the northern part of Colhué Huapi in two. It runs in a straight line from north to south for about 20 kilometres and rises 500 metres above sea level at its highest point and is the most prominent coastal feature in sight from all sides. In terms of size,

24822-491: The lake recovered, it grew to such an extent that in parts it covered the old route to Sarmiento. To combat the frequent floods, the inhabitants of the farms dug wells close to the shore. Even in the 1950s, the river that carried its waters to the Chubut River was still flowing and had its last activity. Moreover, by that time the whole area adjacent to the lake had abundant water, farms, fruit trees, trees, plantations, it

25019-514: The lake. It promoted an agricultural settlement that used the waters of the river that feeds the lake. With the closure of the Comodoro Rivadavia to Colonia Sarmiento Railway in 1977, the village declined rapidly. However, even today it is still a place with agricultural production. At the end of the first half of the 20th century, the lake was already suffering from recurrent low water levels. However, it never dried up completely. When

25216-522: The lakes were still connected and the bottom of the lower Sarmiento was almost entirely occupied by water. By 1500 BC the lakes would have reached a level similar to the present day and separated. It is believed that the arid conditions that persist today, with certain variables, have been maintained from the last 5,000 - 6,000 years to the present. The lake area was inhabited by aborigines throughout time. Because of this continuous presence, there are material records of hunter-gatherer peoples. Their presence

25413-467: The land was divided by The Boundary Treaty of 1881 . Patagonia is divided between Western Patagonia (Chile) and Eastern Patagonia (Argentina) and several territories are still under dispute and claiming their rights. Mapuche people came from the Chilean Andes and voted to remain in different sides of Patagonia. Welsh settlers came from Wales and North America and voted to remain in Patagonia; when

25610-496: The large cow-sized ground sloth Mylodon , the large camel-like ungulate Macrauchenia , indigenous equines belonging to the genus Hippidion , the giant short-faced bear Arctotherium , and the large sabertooth cat Smilodon . The extinct fox Dusicyon avus (a close relative of the Falkland Islands wolf ) also formerly inhabited the region, until apparently becoming extinct around 500-400 years ago. Patagonia

25807-521: The largest of all dinosaurs, have been found in Patagonia, and a model of the mid- Jurassic Piatnitzkysaurus graces the concourse of the Trelew airport (the skeleton is in the Trelew paleontological museum; the museum's staff has also announced the discovery of a species of dinosaur even bigger than Argentinosaurus ). Of more than paleontological interest, the middle Jurassic Los Molles Formation and

26004-406: The last glacial period , the Sahara was much larger than it is today, extending south beyond its current boundaries. The end of the glacial period brought more rain to the Sahara, from about 8000 BCE to 6000 BCE, perhaps because of low pressure areas over the collapsing ice sheets to the north. Once the ice sheets were gone, the northern Sahara dried out. In the southern Sahara, the drying trend

26201-430: The late 19th and early 20th centuries clearly show the channels of the Zanjón del Cerro Negro and a kind of delta that drained into the central western shore of the Colhué Huapi, which was obstructed by National Route 26. According to satellite images, the Zanjón del Cerro Negro loses most of its water between kilometres 6 and 23 of its course. Thus, it does not usually drain into the lake despite being 40 kilometres long. It

26398-458: The late nineteenth century, The hypothesis was later formally proposed and tested by the meteorologist John Kutzbach in 1981. Kutzbach's ideas about the impacts of insolation on global monsoonal patterns have become widely accepted today as the underlying driver of long-term monsoonal cycles. Kutzbach never formally named his hypothesis and as such it is referred to here as the " Orbital Monsoon Hypothesis " as suggested by Ruddiman in 2001. During

26595-530: The leeward side by dropping much of the humidity brought by atmospheric disturbances along the polar front which affects the surrounding Mediterranean climates. The primary source of rain in the Sahara is the Intertropical Convergence Zone , a continuous belt of low-pressure systems near the equator which bring the brief, short and irregular rainy season to the Sahel and southern Sahara. Rainfall in this giant desert has to overcome

26792-553: The many kinds of waterfowl the Chilean flamingo ( Phoenicopterus chilensis ), the upland goose ( Chloephaga picta ), and in the strait, the remarkable steamer ducks are found. Signature marine fauna include the southern right whale , the Magellanic penguin ( Spheniscus magellanicus ), the killer whale , and elephant seals . The Valdés Peninsula is a UNESCO World Heritage Site , designated for its global significance as

26989-419: The maximum area of water and to find any surface moisture, and by having small thick leaves or needles to prevent water loss by evapotranspiration . Plant leaves may dry out totally and then recover. Several species of fox live in the Sahara including: the fennec fox , pale fox and Rüppell's fox . The addax , a large white antelope , can go nearly a year in the desert without drinking. The dorcas gazelle

27186-437: The middle Holocene Tenerian culture . The post-Kiffian desiccation lasted until around 4600 BCE, when the earliest artefacts associated with the Tenerians have been dated to. Some 200 skeletons have been discovered at Gobero. The Tenerians were considerably shorter in height and less robust than the earlier Kiffians. Craniometric analysis also indicates that they were osteologically distinct. The Kiffian skulls are akin to those of

27383-837: The more northerly regions of the Antarctic Plate began to subduct beneath Patagonia so that the Chile Triple Junction advanced to the north over time. The asthenospheric window associated to the triple junction disturbed previous patterns of mantle convection beneath Patagonia inducing an uplift of c. 1 km that reversed the Miocene transgression. At a state level, Patagonia visually occupies an area within two countries: approximately 10% in Chile and approximately 90% in Argentina . Both countries have organized their Patagonian territories into nonequivalent administrative subdivisions: provinces and departments in Argentina, as well as regions , provinces , and communes in Chile. As Chile

27580-483: The north of the town of Sarmiento (Chubut). The southernmost branch of the Senguerr River is the Cerro Negro ditch. It also forms meanders and lagoons, but reaches Lake Colhué Huapi only during extraordinary floods. Thus in the past the Colhué Huapi was fed by the Senguer in three sections. The first and best known is the Falso Senguer branch, which today is named as the only tributary of the lake. However, maps from

27777-448: The north, 12 to 16   °C in the south, with nights generally between 3 and 8   °C), cloudy in the south, and very windy. Winters are dark and cold, but without the extreme temperatures in the south and west ( Ushuaia rarely reaches −10   °C, but hovers around 0   °C for several months, and snow can be heavy). In the east and north, winters are much more severe, with cold snaps bringing temperatures down to −20   °C all

27974-579: The north, the Sahara skirts the Mediterranean Sea in Egypt and portions of Libya, but in Cyrenaica and the Maghreb , the Sahara borders the Mediterranean forest, woodland, and scrub eco-regions of northern Africa, all of which have a Mediterranean climate characterized by hot summers and cool and rainy winters. According to the botanical criteria of Frank White and geographer Robert Capot-Rey,

28171-411: The northeast corner, and rapidly decrease to less than 300 mm. The Patagonian west coast, which belongs exclusively to Chile, has a cool oceanic climate, with summer maximum temperatures ranging from 14   °C in the south to 19   °C in the north (and nights between 5 and 11   °C) and very high precipitation, from 2,000 to more than 7,000 mm in local microclimates. Snow is uncommon at

28368-477: The northern limit of the Sahara corresponds to the northern limit of date palm cultivation and the southern limit of the range of esparto , a grass typical of the Mediterranean climate portion of the Maghreb and Iberia . The northern limit also corresponds to the 100 mm (3.9 in) isohyet of annual precipitation. To the south, the Sahara is bounded by the Sahel, a belt of dry tropical savanna with

28565-459: The opposite is true, with decreased annual precipitation and less vegetation resulting in a phase of the Sahara climate cycle known as the "desert Sahara". The idea that changes in insolation (solar heating) caused by long-term changes in Earth's orbit are a controlling factor for the long-term variations in the strength of monsoon patterns across the globe was first suggested by Rudolf Spitaler in

28762-476: The other and diminishes very quickly eastward. An example of this is Laguna Frías, in Argentina, which receives 4,400 mm yearly. The city of Bariloche, about 40 km further east, receives about 1,000 mm, and the airport, another 15 km east, receives less than 600 mm. The easterly slopes of the Andes are home to several Argentine cities: San Martín de los Andes , Bariloche, El Bolsón , Esquel , and El Calafate . Temperatures there are milder in

28959-535: The other peoples of the region in a short period of time, and are the principal indigenous community today. Navigators such as Gonçalo Coelho and Amerigo Vespucci possibly had reached the area (his own account of 1502 has it that they reached the latitude 52°S), but Vespucci's failure to accurately describe the main geographical features of the region such as the Río de la Plata casts doubts on whether they really did so. The first or more detailed description of part of

29156-495: The past, still present at that time, within a few decades were incorporated into the western way of life. The old way of life became extinct within a few years. In a report written by the German explorer Wilhelm Vallentin, during his tour of the region in 1904 and 1905. He described it as a lake about 50 kilometres long and just over 20 kilometres wide. It had been completely dry in former times. In an essay on Sarmiento's colony in

29353-453: The past, the entire Senguerr basin had a natural and intermittent drainage towards the Atlantic slope, as the excessive floods and flows towards the Colhué Huapi reached the mouth of the Chico river, whose headwaters are located at the south-eastern end of the flood zone of this lake. Thus, through the long course of the Chico River to the northeast, the discharge occasionally reached its mouth at

29550-419: The physical and atmospheric barriers that normally prevent the production of precipitation. The harsh climate of the Sahara is characterized by: extremely low, unreliable, highly erratic rainfall; extremely high sunshine duration values; high temperatures year-round; negligible rates of relative humidity ; a significant diurnal temperature variation ; and extremely high levels of potential evaporation which are

29747-401: The polar front, although very attenuated by the rain shadow effects of the mountains and the annual average rainfall ranges from 100 millimetres (4 in) to 250 millimetres (10 in). For example, Biskra , Algeria, and Ouarzazate , Morocco, are found in this zone. The southern fringe of the desert along the border with the Sahel receives summer cloudiness and rainfall due to the arrival of

29944-835: The principal ones are the Gualichu , south of the Río Negro , the Maquinchao and Valcheta (through which previously flowed the waters of Nahuel Huapi Lake , which now feed the Limay River), the Senguerr (spelled Senguer on most Argentine maps and within the corresponding region), and the Deseado River . Besides these transverse depressions (some of them marking lines of ancient interoceanic communication), others were occupied by either more or less extensive lakes, such as

30141-541: The prospect of the imminent disappearance of the lake, the residents of Sarmiento, alarmed by the falling water level, gathered in marches and demanded measures. Political inaction led the protesters to camp in front of the IPA and to dismantle part of the illegal embankments that divert the flow of the river themselves. Since 2017, the Colhué Huapi has been slowly drying up again, and by December 2019 it had 20% of its original surface area left. Patagonia Patagonia ( Spanish pronunciation: [pataˈɣonja] )

30338-532: The recent past. Analysis of Nile River deposited sediments in the delta also shows this period had a higher proportion of sediments coming from the Blue Nile , suggesting higher rainfall also in the Ethiopian Highlands . This was caused principally by a stronger monsoonal circulation throughout the sub-tropical regions, affecting India, Arabia and the Sahara. Lake Victoria only recently became

30535-462: The region, apparently hunting of guanaco, and to a lesser extent rhea ( ñandú ), were the primary food sources of tribes living on the eastern plains. It is also not clear if domestic dogs were part of early human activity. Bolas are commonly found and were used to catch guanaco and rhea . A maritime tradition existed along the Pacific coast, whose latest exponents were the Yaghan (Yámana) to

30732-451: The rest of South America). At several sites these points have been found associated with extinct megafauna, including the large ground sloth Mylodon and the native equine Hippidion . The Cueva de las Manos is a famous site in Santa Cruz, Argentina. This cave at the foot of a cliff is covered in wall paintings, particularly the negative images of hundreds of hands, believed to date from around 8000 BC. Based on artifacts found in

30929-400: The route that runs along part of the lake shore. The route forks in two: to the west towards the towns of Buen Pasto and Paso de Indios , and the other towards Chico River and Comodoro Rivadavia. Lake Colhué Huapi occupied a shallow depression, presumably originated by wind deflation in an area occupied predominantly by fine clays. Its only indirect tributary is the Senguerr River , which

31126-608: The same area suggest that they lived on the shores of a lake that was present during the Holocene Wet Phase, a period when the Sahara was verdant and wet. The Kiffian people were tall, standing over six feet in height. Craniometric analysis indicates that this early Holocene population was closely related to the Late Pleistocene Iberomaurusians and early Holocene Capsians of the Maghreb, as well as mid-Holocene Mechta groups. Traces of

31323-443: The sand dunes resulted in the creation of a Sahara -like desert with mounds of sand similar in size and shape to pyramids. The dunes have sand that was at the bottom of the lake as sediment and are moved with every wind, burying everything in their path. Both the river and lake areas are important dinosaur sites with dinosaur specimens found and dinosaur egg remains. The area includes Cretaceous rocks, about 70 million years old, and

31520-412: The scale of the Nile floods between 2700 and 2100 BCE. The Sahara comprises several distinct ecoregions . With their variations in temperature, rainfall, elevation, and soil, these regions harbor distinct communities of plants and animals. The flora of the Sahara is highly diversified based on the bio-geographical characteristics of this vast desert. Floristically , the Sahara has three zones based on

31717-440: The scientific body, the abundance of fine sediments was large enough to be recorded by satellites. By 2017 the lake had completely disappeared. That year the situation showed that in only three months it had disappeared, after months before it had maintained 30% of its water volume. By the middle of that year a flood revived it for a while. This climatic phenomenon was unprecedented and was not recorded in any record. Thanks to this,

31914-521: The shelter of shrubs such as balanites and acacias. They are unusually pale. The other cheetah subspecies ( northeast African cheetah ) lives in Chad, Sudan and the eastern region of Niger. However, it is currently extinct in the wild in Egypt and Libya. There are approximately 2000 mature individuals left in the wild. Other animals include the monitor lizards , hyrax , sand vipers , and small populations of African wild dog , in perhaps only 14 countries and red-necked ostrich . Other animals exist in

32111-478: The shore: boats, old moorings, settlements and some houses. The last fishing activities were carried out in the year 2000 during a great low water. Today, many of its fishermen have moved to the neighbouring lake. In May 2016, a ranch hand discovered a light aircraft that had crashed in 1964 in a swamp at the bottom of the lake, which was dry. The aircraft was carrying four passengers, had departed from Comodoro Rivadavia and crashed into Lake Colhué Huapi, killing all

32308-457: The shores of the lake are the Chica peninsula and the Mocha peninsula with its high stone cliffs. The lake used to have many islands, now reduced to sandy, wind-worn hills and two large, flat-roofed cliff islands. Today some of them still have vegetation. The extensive drought has now caused the ruin of all the surrounding estancias, as well as the accumulation of extensive sand dunes that are spread over large distances for kilometres. The size of

32505-566: The singular mammal Pyrotherium , also of very large dimensions. In the Cenozoic marine formation, considerable numbers of cetaceans have been discovered. During the Oligocene and early Miocene , large swathes of Patagonia were subject to a marine transgression , which might have temporarily linked the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, as inferred from the findings of marine invertebrate fossils of both Atlantic and Pacific affinity in La Cascada Formation . Connection would have occurred through narrow epicontinental seaways that formed channels in

32702-401: The source of the White Nile and dried out almost completely around 15 kya. The sudden subsequent movement of the ITCZ southwards with a Heinrich event (a sudden cooling followed by a slower warming), linked to changes with the El Niño-Southern Oscillation cycle, led to a rapid drying out of the Saharan and Arabian regions, which quickly became desert. This is linked to a marked decline in

32899-417: The source of the Falso Senguerr in order to keep Lake Musters at its maximum reserve level. With much of the lake dry in 2011 the wind swept across the lake bed and formed dunes up to 14 m high that move towards the shore and affect all coastal populations on windy days from Camarones to Caleta Olivia in the south. The populations in this strip are covered on windy days in an apparent sort of mist, but this

33096-402: The south of Tierra del Fuego, the Kaweshqar between Taitao Peninsula and Tierra del Fuego, and the Chono people in the Chonos Archipelago . The Selk'nam , Haush , and Tehuelche are generally thought to be culturally and linguistically related peoples physically distinct from the sea-faring peoples. It is possible that Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego was connected to the mainland in

33293-459: The still richer late Jurassic ( Tithonian ) and early Cretaceous ( Berriasian ) Vaca Muerta formation above it in the Neuquén basin are reported to contain huge hydrocarbon reserves (mostly gas in Los Molles, both gas and oil in Vaca Muerta) partly accessible through hydraulic fracturing . Other specimens of the interesting fauna of Patagonia, belonging to the Middle Cenozoic, are the gigantic wingless birds, exceeding in size any hitherto known, and

33490-561: The strongest anticyclonic weather regime, and the annual average rainfall can drop to less than 1 millimetre (0.04 in). In fact, most of the Sahara receives less than 20 millimetres (0.8 in). Of the 9,000,000 square kilometres (3,500,000 sq mi) of desert land in the Sahara, an area of about 2,800,000 square kilometres (1,100,000 sq mi) (about 31% of the total area) receives an annual average rainfall amount of 10 millimetres (0.4 in) or less, while some 1,500,000 square kilometres (580,000 sq mi) (about 17% of

33687-494: The summer (in the north, between 20 and 24   °C, with cold nights between 4 and 9   °C; in the south, summers are between 16 and 20   °C, at night temperatures are similar to the north) and much colder in the winter, with frequent snowfall (although snow cover rarely lasts very long). Daytime highs range from 3 to 9   °C in the north, and from 0 to 7   °C in the south, whereas nights range from −5 to 2   °C everywhere. Cold waves can bring much colder values;

33884-405: The system. In 2003, the lake showed its last remnants of water 10 kilometres south of the Jerez boliche. The lake began its slow drought since the Falso Senguerr, its main source of nourishment, was severely touched by human hand in recent years, despite its important role as a supplier of water to the Colhué Huapi. An INTA report issued in 2016 indicated that the largest area covered by water in

34081-440: The theoretical maximum value. A value of 4300 hours (98%) of the time would be recorded in Upper Egypt ( Aswan , Luxor ) and in the Nubian Desert ( Wadi Halfa ). The annual average direct solar irradiation is around 2,800 kWh/(m year) in the Great Desert. The Sahara has a huge potential for solar energy production. The high position of the Sun, the extremely low relative humidity, and the lack of vegetation and rainfall make

34278-409: The tilt of the earth changes between 22° and 24.5°. At present, it is in a dry period, but it is expected that the Sahara will become green again in 15,000 years. When the North African monsoon is at its strongest, annual precipitation and subsequent vegetation in the Sahara region increase, resulting in conditions commonly referred to as the " green Sahara ". For a relatively weak North African monsoon,

34475-419: The time of the Spanish arrival , Patagonia was inhabited by multiple indigenous tribes. In a small portion of northwestern Patagonia, indigenous peoples practiced agriculture, while in the remaining territory, peoples lived as hunter-gatherers, traveling by foot in eastern Patagonia or by dugout canoe and dalca in the fjords and channels . In colonial times indigenous peoples of northeastern Patagonia adopted

34672-472: The time, and a favorite reading of Magellan. Magellan's perception of the natives, dressed in skins, and eating raw meat, clearly recalled the uncivilized Patagón in Vázquez's book. Novelist and travel writer Bruce Chatwin suggests etymological roots of both Patagon and Patagonia in his book, In Patagonia , noting the similarity between "Patagon" and the Greek word παταγος, which means "a roaring" or "gnashing of teeth" (in his chronicle, Pigafetta describes

34869-446: The time, prompting some of them to believe that Patagonians were giants. According to Antonio Pigafetta, one of the Magellan expedition's few survivors and its published chronicler, Magellan bestowed the name Patagão (or Patagón ) on the inhabitants they encountered there, and the name "Patagonia" for the region. Although Pigafetta's account does not describe how this name came about, subsequent popular interpretations gave credence to

35066-478: The total area) receives an average of 5 millimetres (0.2 in) or less. The annual average rainfall is virtually zero over a wide area of some 1,000,000 square kilometres (390,000 sq mi) in the eastern Sahara comprising deserts of: Libya, Egypt and Sudan ( Tazirbu , Kufra , Dakhla , Kharga , Farafra , Siwa , Asyut , Sohag , Luxor, Aswan, Abu Simbel , Wadi Halfa) where the long-term mean approximates 0.5 millimetres (0.02 in) per year. Rainfall

35263-410: The treaty was signed, they voted for culture and administration to be apart from the country keeping the settlement, language, schools, traditions, regional dates, flag, anthems, and celebrations. Patagonians also live abroad in settlements like Saltcoats, Saskatchewan , Canada; New South Wales , Australia; South Africa; the Falkland Islands; and North America. Argentine Patagonia is for the most part

35460-435: The water receded, the plain became a lagoon linked to the lake by a channel, before finally becoming an independent lagoon that eventually mutated into the parched plain that we walk across. By the 1960s the area adjacent to the lake had a large amount of sheep production with productive fields. The production was such that the estancia was able to produce cheese for sale in the now extinct Parada km 162  [ es ] ,

35657-410: The way to the Rio Grande on the Atlantic coast. Snow can fall even in the summer in most areas, as well. The guanaco ( Lama guanicoe ), South American cougar ( Puma concolor concolor ), the Patagonian fox ( Lycalopex griseus ), Patagonian hog-nosed skunk ( Conepatus humboldtii ), and Magellanic tuco-tuco ( Ctenomys magellanicus ; a subterranean rodent ) are the most characteristic mammals of

35854-440: The westward slope has a much heavier precipitation than the eastern in a rainshadow effect; the western islands close to Torres del Paine receive an annual precipitation of 4,000 to 7,000 mm, whilst the eastern hills are less than 800 mm and the plains may be as low as 200 mm annual precipitation. Precipitation is highly seasonal in northwestern Patagonia. For example, Villa La Angostura in Argentina, close to

36051-563: The winter, and often experience very cold temperatures. In Chile, the city of Balmaceda is known for being situated in this region (which is otherwise almost exclusively in Argentina), and for being the coldest place in Chile. In 2017, temperatures even dropped down to −20   °C in the region. The northern Atlantic coast has warm summers (28 to 32   °C, but with relatively cool nights at 15   °C) and mild winters, with highs around 12   °C and lows about 2–3   °C. Occasionally, temperatures reach −10 or 40   °C, and rainfall

36248-448: The word patagón . Magellan used this term in 1520 to describe the native tribes of the region, whom his expedition thought to be giants. The people he called the Patagons are now believed to have been the Tehuelche , who tended to be taller than Europeans of the time. Argentine researcher Miguel Doura observed that the name Patagonia possibly derives from the ancient Greek region of modern Turkey called Paphlagonia , possible home of

36445-418: The word "chupat" belonging to a transitional language between the southern and northern Tehuelche ethnic groups that were located in that region called Tewsün or Teushen. The word means transparency and is related to the clarity and purity of the river that bears that name and runs through the province. It is also related to the origin of the Welsh pronunciation of the word "chupat" which later became "Chubut". It

36642-405: Was a very green place, a place with a lot of vegetation. The 1950s are fundamental for the comparisons of the different levels of the lake over time. The Topographic charts from the 1950s and satellite photos from the early 2000s reveal the change in elevation and the successive recession of the lake. In those years, the Mocha peninsula was connected to the mainland by a narrow strip of land. Then, as

36839-411: Was at times practised beyond this limit in nearby areas of Patagonia but populations reverted at times to non-agricultural lifestyles. By the time of the Spanish arrival to the area (1550s) there is no record of agriculture being practised in northern Patagonia. The extensive Patagonian grasslands and an associated abundance of guanaco game may have contributed for the indigenous populations to favour

37036-456: Was carried out in a swampy body of water, with murky, shallow waters, which froze during the winter and suffered great drops. The reasons for the success of the fishing activity were due to the fact that the lake was navigable most of the year with simple boats, as it was not very dangerous due to its shallowness. This meant that during windstorms, the lake did not generate the strong swell of its neighbouring Musters, which, despite its smaller size,

37233-408: Was formerly inhabited by the jaguar subspecies Panthera onca mesembrina (which is considerably larger than living jaguars) during the Pleistocene, with jaguars continuing to inhabit Patagonia into historic times (until the late 19th century), but are now extirpated from the region. Bird life is often abundant. The crested caracara ( Caracara plancus ) is one of the characteristic aspects of

37430-427: Was given to a nearby oil field and to an old Comodoro Rivadavia Railway station  [ es ] near the lake, which served the homonymous spot. The lake used to be an orchard in the middle of the deserted Patagonian Steppe . The San Bernardo mountain range separates it from the neighbouring Lake Musters and the entire area around it is riddled with hills of low and high altitudes. The landscapes surrounding

37627-403: Was initially counteracted by the monsoon , which brought rain further north than it does today. By around 4200 BCE, however, the monsoon retreated south to approximately where it is today, leading to the gradual desertification of the Sahara. The Sahara is now as dry as it was about 13,000 years ago. Lake Chad is the remnant of a former inland sea, paleolake Mega-Chad, which existed during

37824-399: Was just one tenth the rainfall around 125 kya. In the southern Negev Desert speleothems did not grow between 185 and 140 kya ( MIS 6), 110–90 (MIS 5.4–5.2), nor after 85 kya nor during most of the interglacial period (MIS 5.1), the glacial period and Holocene . This suggests that the southern Negev was arid-to-hyper-arid in these periods. During the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) the Sahara

38021-430: Was more extensive than it is now with the extent of the tropical forests being greatly reduced, and the lower temperatures reduced the strength of the Hadley Cell . This is a climate cell which causes rising tropical air of the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) to bring rain to the tropics, while dry descending air, at about 20 degrees north , flows back to the equator and brings desert conditions to this region. It

38218-485: Was neglected by the Spanish government, the latter being abandoned before Thomas Cavendish visited it in 1587 during his circumnavigation , and so desolate that he called it Port Famine . After the discovery of the route around Cape Horn, the Spanish Crown lost interest in southern Patagonia until the 18th century, when the coastal settlements Carmen de Patagones, San José, Puerto Deseado, and Nueva Colonia Floridablanca were established, although it maintained its claim of

38415-413: Was recorded in chenques (tombs), rock art and elements of their daily life. The lake enjoyed human preference over neighbouring Lake Musters , as evidenced by the large number and variety of archaeological features and indigenous burial sites that have been found there for decades. Recent studies have verified that hunter-gatherer groups practised intensive and continuous fishing since 1500 years ago. It

38612-442: Was the Tehuelches who gathered the oldest accounts of the lake. They claimed that its waters were inhabited by a monster known as lemisch (Yemis-che). The translation is water tiger. For the Indians it was a supernatural being of which they were superstitiously terrified, because of its ferocious appearance, its nocturnal habits, its strength and bellowing, and its complete invulnerability to remington shots. Carlos Ameghino , who

38809-502: Was travelling through Chubut and Patagonia in search of fossil bones for his brother Florentino, mentioned to the latter in a letter that he had obtained from the Tehuelche Indians, some precious data about the famous lemisch . The scientist affirmed its veracity since he had seen in the possession of an Indian, a piece of lemisch leather, in which the small bones are embedded. These were sent to Florentino Ameghino and were found to resemble fossilised pieces of Mylodon remains. Until

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