San Rafael Lake is an arc-shaped coastal

lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...

located in the Aysén del General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo Region of

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 ...

, within the national park that bears its name. To the north the lagoon is connected to the

Moraleda Channel Moraleda Channel () is a body of water separating the Chonos Archipelago from the mainland of Chile. It is located at , leading to Gulf of Corcovado. Southward from the mouth of the Aisén Fjord, Moraleda Channel divides into two arms. The east a ...

, to the south lies the Ofqui Isthmus. To the west and east lie the

Taitao Peninsula The Taitao Peninsula (Spanish: ''Península de Taitao'') is a westward projection of the mainland of Chile, with which it is connected by the narrow Isthmus of Ofqui, over which the natives and early missionaries were accustomed to carry their boa ...

and the

Northern Patagonian Ice Field The Northern Patagonian Ice Field, located in southern Chile, is the smaller of two remnant parts in which the Patagonian Ice Sheet in the Andes Mountains of southern South America can be divided. It is completely contained within the boundaries ...

respectively. The lake was formed by the retreat of the

San Rafael Glacier The San Rafael Glacier is one of the major outlet glaciers of the Northern Patagonian Ice Field in southern Chile and is the tidewater glacier nearest the equator. It calves into the Laguna San Rafael and is contained within Laguna San Rafael Nat ...

in the Northern Patagonian Ice Field. Today it is a popular tourism destination, and ships sail from

Puerto Chacabuco Puerto Chacabuco is a Chilean town in Aisén commune. Administratively it belongs to Aysén Province in Aysén del General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo Region and is located at the head of Aisén Fjord. It is the main port of the region, a port of ...

Puyuhuapi Puyuhuapi (Puyuguapi) is a village in southern Chile in the Aysén Region. It is located on Route 7, the Carretera Austral, where the Rio Pascal enters the head of the Puyuhuapi fjord, a small fjord off the Ventisquero Sound. Its harbor on the f ...

and

Puerto Montt Puerto Montt (Mapuche: Meli Pulli) is a port city and commune in southern Chile, located at the northern end of the Reloncaví Sound in the Llanquihue Province, Los Lagos Region, 1,055 km to the south of the capital, Santiago. The commune spa ...

to the lagoon nearly every day to see the ice falling from the glacier into the lagoon. Cruises pass by this area. The lake was visited by the

Antonio de Vea expedition The Antonio de Vea expedition of 1675–1676 was a Spanish naval expedition to the fjords and channels of Patagonia aimed to find whether rival colonial powers—specifically, the English—were active in the region. While this was not the first ...

on December 1675. The expedition entered San Rafael Lake taking note of its windy conditions, the

and the swampy shores in the south that make up the

Isthmus of Ofqui The Isthmus of Ofqui is a narrow isthmus that connects the Taitao Peninsula with the Chilean mainland. The isthmus is bounded in the south by the Gulf of Penas, in the north by the San Rafael Lagoon, in the west by the Taitao Peninsula and in the e ...

. Antonio de Vea entered San Rafael Lake through Río Témpanos (Spanish for "Ice Floe River") without mentioning any

ice floe An ice floe () is a large pack of floating ice often defined as a flat piece at least 20 m across at its widest point, and up to more than 10 km across. Drift ice is a floating field of sea ice composed of several ice floes. They may caus ...

but stating that the

did not reach far into the lake. This has been interpreted to reflect that the effects of the

Little Ice Age The Little Ice Age (LIA) was a period of regional cooling, particularly pronounced in the North Atlantic region. It was not a true ice age of global extent. The term was introduced into scientific literature by François E. Matthes in 1939. Ma ...

were not yet to be seen in the lake the late 17th century. In 1857

Chilean navy The Chilean Navy ( es, Armada de Chile) is the naval warfare service branch of the Chilean Armed Forces. It is under the Ministry of National Defense. Its headquarters are at Edificio Armada de Chile, Valparaiso. History Origins and the Wars ...

officer

Francisco Hudson Ancud.html" ;"title="Punta Arenas by sea from Ancud">Punta Arenas by sea from Ancud, and in orange Hudson's proposed route. The red dot shows the 20 km wide Ofqui Isthmus the only obstacle that makes this route intransitable. --> Francisco Hudson C ...

and

Francisco Fonck Francisco is the Spanish and Portuguese form of the masculine given name ''Franciscus''. Nicknames In Spanish, people with the name Francisco are sometimes nicknamed "Paco". San Francisco de Asís was known as ''Pater Comunitatis'' (father of ...

explored the lake seeking a passage that permitted navigation further south without the need to rounding the dangerous

Tres Montes Peninsula The Tres Montes Peninsula ( es, Península Tres Montes, English: ''Three Hills Peninsula'') is a southwestward projection of Taitao Peninsula which in turn connects to the mainland of Chile by the narrow Isthmus of Ofqui. The peninsula is situat ...

References

San Rafael Lakes of Aysén Region Lagoons of South America Taitao Peninsula {{Aisén-geo-stub