The Cordillera Paine is a mountain group in
Torres del Paine National Park
Torres del Paine National Park ( es, Parque Nacional Torres del Paine) is a national park encompassing mountains, glaciers, lakes, and rivers in southern Chilean Patagonia. The Cordillera del Paine is the centerpiece of the park. It lies in a tr ...
in
Chile
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...
an
Patagonia
Patagonia () refers to 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 gl ...
. The
cordillera
A cordillera is an extensive chain and/or network system of mountain ranges, such as those in the west coast of the Americas. The term is borrowed from Spanish, where the word comes from , a diminutive of ('rope').
The term is most commonly u ...
is located north of
Punta Arenas
Punta Arenas (; historically Sandy Point in English) is the capital city of Chile's southernmost region, Magallanes and Antarctica Chilena. The city was officially renamed as Magallanes in 1927, but in 1938 it was changed back to "Punta Aren ...
, and about south of the Chilean capital
Santiago
Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whose ...
. It belongs to the
Commune of Torres del Paine in
Última Esperanza Province
Última Esperanza ( es, Provincia de Última Esperanza, meaning "Last Hope Province") is one of four provinces in the southern Chilean region of Magallanes and Antártica Chilena. The capital is Puerto Natales and it is named after Última Espera ...
of
Magallanes and Antártica Chilena Region
The Magallanes Region (), officially the Magallanes y la Antártica Chilena Region ( es, Región de Magallanes y de la Antártica Chilena), is one of Chile's 16 first order administrative divisions. It is the southernmost, largest, and second lea ...
. No accurate surveys have been published, and published elevations have been claimed to be seriously inflated, so most of the elevations given on this page are approximate.
[Biggar, John, 2015. ''The Andes: A Guide for Climbers'' (4th edition, ). Several elevations given by this authority are much lower than those given by other authorities, and the higher elevations are not supported by official Chilean IGM maps.] ''Paine'' means "blue" in the native
Tehuelche (Aonikenk) language and is pronounced ''PIE-nay''.
Peaks
The highest summit of the range is Cerro Paine Grande. For a long time its elevation was claimed to be , but in August 2011 it was ascended for the third time, measured using GPS and found to be .
The three Towers of Paine ( es, Torres del Paine) form the centrepiece of
Parque Nacional Torres del Paine. The South Tower of Paine (about in elevation,
is now thought to be the highest of the three, although this has not been definitely established. It was first climbed in 1963 by
Armando Aste. The Central Tower (about
in elevation) was first climbed in 1963 by
Chris Bonington
Sir Christian John Storey Bonington, CVO, CBE, DL (born 6 August 1934) is a British mountaineer.
His career has included nineteen expeditions to the Himalayas, including four to Mount Everest.
Early life and expeditions
Bonington's father, w ...
and
Don Whillans
Donald Desbrow Whillans (18 May 1933 – 4 August 1985) was an English rock climber and mountaineer. He climbed with Joe Brown and Chris Bonington on many new routes, and was considered the technical equal of both.
Early life
Born and brought ...
. In 2017, three Belgian climbers, Nico Favresse, Siebe Vanhee and Sean Villanueva O'Driscoll, made the first free ascent up the rock face, which is about . The North Tower (about in elevation) was first climbed in 1958 by
Guido Monzino
Count Guido Monzino (2 March 1928 – 11 October 1988) was a twentieth-century Italian mountain climber and explorer. In 1973, he led the first Italian expedition to climb Mount Everest. He was the son of Franco Monzino, who founded the ...
.
Other summits include the Cuerno Principal, about in elevation,
and Cerro Paine Chico, which is usually quoted at about .
Geology
![TPIC mafic sill complex](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/26/TPIC_mafic_sill_complex.jpg)
The range is made up of a yellowish
granite
Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...
underlain by grey gabbro-diorite
laccolith
A laccolith is a body of intrusive rock with a dome-shaped upper surface and a level base, fed by a conduit from below. A laccolith forms when magma (molten rock) rising through the Earth's crust begins to spread out horizontally, prying ap ...
and the sedimentary rocks it intrudes, deeply eroded by glaciers. The steep, light colored faces are eroded from the tougher, vertically jointed granitic rocks, while the foothills and dark cap rocks are the sedimentary
country rock
Country rock is a genre of music which fuses rock and country. It was developed by rock musicians who began to record country-flavored records in the late 1960s and early 1970s. These musicians recorded rock records using country themes, vocal s ...
, in this case
flysch
Flysch () is a sequence of sedimentary rock layers that progress from deep-water and turbidity flow deposits to shallow-water shales and sandstones. It is deposited when a deep basin forms rapidly on the continental side of a mountain building ep ...
deposited in the
Cretaceous
The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of th ...
and later folded.
The radiometric age for the quartz diorite at Cerro Paine is 12±2 million years by the
rubidium-strontium method and 13±1 million years by the
potassium-argon method. More precise ages of 12.59±0.02 and 12.50±0.02 million years for the earliest and latest identified phases of the intrusion, respectively, were achieved using
Uranium–lead dating
Uranium–lead dating, abbreviated U–Pb dating, is one of the oldest and most refined of the radiometric dating schemes. It can be used to date rocks that formed and crystallised from about 1 million years to over 4.5 billion years ago with routi ...
methods on single zircon crystals. Basal gabbro and diorite were dated by a similar technique to 12.472±0.009 to 12.431±0.006 million years. Thus, magma was intruded and crystallized over 162±11 thousand years. High resolution dating and excellent 3-D exposure of the
laccolith
A laccolith is a body of intrusive rock with a dome-shaped upper surface and a level base, fed by a conduit from below. A laccolith forms when magma (molten rock) rising through the Earth's crust begins to spread out horizontally, prying ap ...
and its vertical feeding system allow detailed reconstruction of the Torres del Paine fossil
magma chamber
A magma chamber is a large pool of liquid rock beneath the surface of the Earth. The molten rock, or magma, in such a chamber is less dense than the surrounding country rock, which produces buoyant forces on the magma that tend to drive it upw ...
history.
Hiking
![Lago Pehoé](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/24/Lago_Peho%C3%A9_.jpg)
The Torres del Paine National Park—an area of —was declared a
Biosphere Reserve
A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological or o ...
by the
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
in 1978 and receives about 250,000 visitors annually.
[http://www.conaf.cl/wp-content/files_mf/1486060377Tot_a%C3%B1o_2016.pdf ] Trails and some campsites are maintained by Chile's
National Forest Corporation, and mountain huts provide shelter and basic services.
See also
*
Fitz Roy
Monte Fitz Roy (also known as Cerro Chaltén, Cerro Fitz Roy, or simply Mount Fitz Roy) is a mountain in Patagonia, on the border between Argentina and Chile.[Los Glaciares National Park
Los Glaciares National Park ( es, Parque Nacional Los Glaciares) is a federal protected area in Santa Cruz Province, Argentina.
The park covers an area of , making it the largest national park in the country.
Established on 11 May 1937, it host ...]
References
*Biggar, John, 2015. ''The Andes: A Guide for Climbers'' (4th edition, ).
*Kearney, Alan, 1993. ''Mountaineering in Patagonia''. Seattle USA: Cloudcap.
External links
Complete description of Torres del Paine in Andeshandbookx666AFSFASDDFFA Patagonia Webcam and maps from PainePhotograph of the cordillera from Estero Última Esperanza, 50 km to the south
{{DEFAULTSORT:Paine, Codillera Del
Mountain ranges of Chile
Última Esperanza Province
Landforms of Magallanes Region
Miocene magmatism
Torres del Paine National Park