Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego
Chile · Americas
About
Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego (Spanish for 'Great Island of Land of Fire'), also formerly called Isla de Xátiva, is an island near the southern tip of South America from which it is separated by the Strait of Magellan. The western portion (61.43%) of the island (27,294 km2 (10,538.3 sq mi)) is in Chile (Province of Tierra del Fuego and Antártica Chilena Province), while the eastern portion (38.57%, or 20,698 km2 (7,991.5 sq mi)) is in Argentina (Tierra del Fuego Province). It forms the major landmass in an extended archipelago (island group) also called Tierra del Fuego.
The island has an area of 47,992 km2 (18,530 sq mi), making it the largest island in South America and the 29th largest island in the world. Its two biggest towns are Ushuaia and Río Grande, both in Argentina. Other towns are Tolhuin, Porvenir, Camerón, and Cerro Sombrero. The Argentine side, Tierra del Fuego Province, has 190,641 inhabitants (2022), whereas the Chilean side has only 6,656 (2012), almost all located in the Tierra del Fuego Province.
Its highest point is unofficially named Monte Shipton (2,580 m (8,465 ft)), in Chile. Nearby Mount Darwin was previously thought to be the tallest mountain on the island, but is just less than a hundred metres shorter. The northern parts of the island have oil deposits; Cerro Sombrero in Chile is the main extraction centre in the island.
On 17 December 1949, an earthquake occurred in the Chilean portion, near the Argentine border. Recorded as 7.8 on the moment magnitude scale, it was the most powerful ever recorded in the south of Argentina.
Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)。Photography via Wikimedia Commons.