Geology

Pillán Mahuiza Geopark, in San Martín de los Andes, Patagonia, Argentina, spans over an area of 4,847 km2 on the Neuquén departments of Aluminé, Catán Lil, Collón Curá, Huiliches, Lácar and Los Lagos. This geopark has been conceived by a group of local geologists following the UNESCO guidelines for the Global Geoparks Network, applying for being the first geopark in Argentina and to join the incipient Latin-American Geoparks Network. The area proposed for this first Argentinian geopark comprises the southwest of the Neuquén province, in the geological province known as Northern Patagonian...

La Payunia is a 25,000 km2 volcanic area located southeast of the Argentinian province of Mendoza, at the foot of the Andes and between rivers Atuel and Colorado. It is one of the regions with more density of volcanoes in our planet, with more than 800 cones of different sizes and eruption styles. These quantity and density make La Payunia one of the most important volcanic districts on Earth. Its landscape, made by vast lava plains with many volcanic cones, basalt flows and pyroclastic fields looks like a different planet, making the visit to La Payunia a wonderful experience. The area is candidate...

El Tromen Natural Protected Area is located on the north of Neuquén province, on the Chos Malal and Pehuenches departments, 38 km NE of the town of Chos Malal. It belongs to the Neuquén province jurisdiction, with category of provincial park. It was created in 1971, with an area f 30,000 has.   It management plan, of 1999, defines as conservation goals: - Preserve the natural characteristics and representative samples of the different ecosystems of the area. - Preserve, evaluate and spread the geomorphological and physiographic features of the area. - Protect the populations...

One of the best tours off the beaten track you can do from San Martín de los Andes is going to Villa Pehuenia 200 km north of San Martín and a gem still hidden from the massive tourism. Villa Pehuenia lies in the middle of the Pehuen District, one of the best touristic circuits of the Neuquén province. Some tour agencies in San Martín de los Andes do it as a day tour, but we think is much better to spend at least one night in Villa Pehuenia, so you have enough time to enjoy the place and als go thorough the so-called "Pehuenia circuit", one of the main attractions of the area.    The...

After spending the last couple of days in the pristine Perito Moreno National Park we started the third and last part of our tour. Our last destinations were two of the highlight spots in Southern Patagonia: El Chaltén and El Calafate, both in Los Glaciares National Park. This park protects an area of 724.000 hectareas of colossal glaciers and lakes, surrounded by magnificent landscapes of steppe and forest. Due to its amazing splendour this park was declared World Heritage by UNESCO in 1981 and it is undoubtedly one of the most wonderful natural landscapes in the world. El Chaltén,...

On this post we will relate the second part of our last Route 40 tour from San Martín de los Andes to El Calafate with Ana, Pedro and Gaetano. South of Esquel Route 40 turns slightly to the east, moving away from the Andes mountain range and entering the immense and mostly flat Patagonian steppe. Even for the Argentinians this is a very unknown and almost uninhabited territory; there are no major towns and the only little ones are very distant one from the other. Most part of this apparently void land is privately owned, divided in huge estancias or ranches, separated by wire fences. When...

An ecoregion or ecological region is a relatively large biogeographical area characterized by the unique features of its ecology, climate, geomorphology, soils, flora and fauna. The Taiga, the African Savanna, the Mediterranean Forest or the Amazonian Jungle are good examples of ecoregions. The Patagonian Steppe is the ecoregion that covers most part of Patagonia, around 730.000 Km² in southwest Mendoza, centre of Neuquén, southwest of Río Negro and most of Chubut and Santa Cruz, except their west side. The steppe borders the Andean-Patagonian forest on the west, the Monte region on the north...

Yesterday, April 22nd, 2015 (ironically the Earth Day) the Calbuco Volcano in Chile erupted. Let’s take a look to what volcanoes are and what are then main ones in the Patagonia region. HOW VOLCANOS ARE FORMED The inner structure of the Earth is made of three concentric layers: core, mantle and crust. The outermost part of the crust is called lithosphere, and there is where the geological processes occur. The core is an alloy of iron, solid in the centre and partially molten on the exterior. The mantle is made of molten rocks, with different temperatures and density; that creates a convective...

Geography Lanín volcano, with a height of 3,776 m, is one of the highest peaks in Patagonia and an icon both for the Mapuche culture and the Neuquén province. It is located near the town on Junín de los Andes, on the border between Argentina and Chile. Three quarters of the volcano are on Argentinian territory, where it gives its name to the surrounding National Park, the Lanín National Park. The other quarter belongs to Chile, where is part of the Villarrica National Park.   Being in a relatively plain area, and surrounded by much lower mountains, Lanín is visible from very far away,...

The petrified forest are paleontology sites where there are fossilized trees from past geological eras. Patagonia is one of the richest areas in the world on this kind of sites, with the Petrified Forest Natural Monument, in the Santa Cruz province and the Sarmiento Petrified Forest in Chubut, as main exponents.     The origin of these petrified forest comes from the Late Jurassic period, approximately 150 million years ago. During that period the continents, as we know them, where still together in a super-continent called Pangea. During the Jurassic period Pangea was finally...