The Arauco Peninsula (Spanish: península de Arauco), is a
peninsula
A peninsula (; ) is a landform that extends from a mainland and is surrounded by water on most, but not all of its borders. A peninsula is also sometimes defined as a piece of land bordered by water on three of its sides. Peninsulas exist on all ...
in
Southern Chile
Southern Chile is an informal geographic term for any place south of the capital city, Santiago, or south of Biobío River, the mouth of which is Concepción, about {{convert, 200, mi, km, sigfig=1, order=flip south of Santiago. Generally cities ...
located in the homonymous
Arauco Province
Arauco Province ( es, Provincia de Arauco) is one of four provinces of the Chilean region of Bío Bío. It spans a coastal area of just south of the mouth of the Biobío River, the traditional demarcation between the nation's major natural regio ...
. It projects northwest into the
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...
. The peninsula is located west of
Cordillera de Nahuelbuta
The Nahuelbuta Range or Cordillera de Nahuelbuta () is a mountain range in Bio-Bio and Araucania Region, southern Chile. It is located along the Pacific coast and forms part of the larger Chilean Coast Range. The name of the range derives from th ...
. Geologically it is a
forearc
Forearc is a plate tectonic term referring to a region between an oceanic trench, also known as a subduction zone, and the associated volcanic arc. Forearc regions are present along a convergent margins and eponymously form 'in front of' the vol ...
high.
[Daniel Melnick, Bodo Bookhagen, Manfred R. Strecker,
y Helmut P. Echtler. 2009]
Segmentation of megathrust rupture zones from fore-arc deformation patterns over hundreds to millions of years, Arauco peninsula, Chile
''Journal of Geophysical Research
The ''Journal of Geophysical Research'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal. It is the flagship journal of the American Geophysical Union. It contains original research on the physical, chemical, and biological processes that contribute to the un ...
'', Vol. 114.
See also
*
Arauco Basin
The Arauco Basin ( es, Cuenca de Arauco) is a sediment-filled depression –a sedimentary basin– in south-central Chile. In the context of plate tectonics it is classified as a forearc basin. The basin has an approximate area of and at its deep ...
*
Ranquil Formation
The Ranquil Formation ( es, Formación Ranquil) is a Miocene and Pliocene sedimentary formation located in Arauco Province in south–central Chile, including outcrops in Mocha Island. The formation has its greatest thicknesses in the south-west, ...
References
Peninsulas of Chile
Landforms of Biobío Region
Coasts of Biobío Region
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