CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

We present the first extensive glacial gemorphic map of peninsulas and islands located between the Gran Campo Nevado and the Estrecho de Magallanes, south-western Patagonia (52.8-53.1°S, 73.0-73.9°W). The map covers an area of 1.200 km2 and is based on remote-sensing data analysis in a GIS environment and corroborated by field observations at Isla Tamar, Isla Zanelli and Peninsula Muñoz Gamero. High-resolution Planet satellite images (Imagery © 2019 Planet Labs Inc) from 2017 to 2018 and aerial photographs taken between 1978 and 1982 by the Servicio Aerofotogramétrico Chileno (SAF) were used to map at scales of 1:5000 and 1:8000. The ALOS PALSAR Digital Elevation Model was used as the topographic base data, while the 3D Google Earth viewer platform helped to improve landform limit determination. Selected remotely mapped sites were visited during the #ChileFjords18 science cruise in November 2018 to corroborate mapped features using direct field measurements, photography & drone footage. The research area is dominated by glacial erosional landforms that include horns, cirques, u-shaped valleys, roche moutonnees, whalebacks and truncated spurs. Glacial related depositional features principally correspond to fluvio-glacial terraces, outwash plains and erratic boulders on scoured bedrock. Frontal and lateral moraines were mapped on land, most of them are located close to cirques. This map is the first high-resolution geomorphic map in the area and one of the few at the western flank of the Andean Cordillera in south-western Chile. The methods developed here could be used as a guide to develop future studies that aim at understanding and comparing ice sheet behavior on both sides of the Andean massif during the last glacial period and subsequent deglaciation.