The Taitao Peninsula (

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

: ''Península de Taitao'') is a westward projection of the mainland 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 ...

, with which it is connected by the narrow

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 ...

, over which the natives and early missionaries were accustomed to carry their boats between 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 ...

and

Gulf of Penas The Gulf of Penas (''Golfo de Penas'' in Spanish, meaning "gulf of distress") is a body of water located south of the Taitao Peninsula, Chile. Geography It is open to the westerly storms of the Pacific Ocean, but it affords entrance to several nat ...

. spelled "Taytao" It is situated in the Aysén del General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo Region and a part of this peninsula is located inside the boundaries of

Laguna San Rafael National Park Laguna San Rafael National Park () is a park located on the Pacific coast of southern Chile. The park is named for the San Rafael Lagoon formed by the retreat of the San Rafael Glacier. Created in 1959, it covers an area of and includes the Nort ...

. The

Presidente Ríos Lake Presidente Ríos Lake () is located in the Aysén del General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo Region of Chile. It lies in the middle of the Taitao Peninsula. While the lake's existence only became known in Chile in 1945, it appears to have been known ...

, with a surface area of , lies in the middle of the peninsula. A southward incurving projection of the outer shoreline of this peninsula is known as

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 ...

, the most southern point of which is a cape of the same name. Spanish explorers and

Jesuit , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders ...

s that sailed south from

Chiloé Archipelago The Chiloé Archipelago ( es, Archipiélago de Chiloé, , ) is a group of islands lying off the coast of Chile, in the Los Lagos Region. It is separated from mainland Chile by the Chacao Channel in the north, the Sea of Chiloé in the east and t ...

in the 17th and 18th centuries regularly avoided rounding Taitao Peninsula entering instead the Gulf of Penas after a brief land crossing at 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 ...

. While attempting to pass Gulf of Penas in 1741 a storm caught HMS ''Wager'' making it wreck in

Wager Island Wager can refer to: Gambling * Wager, the amount of a valuable staked when gambling on an event with an uncertain outcome, with the primary intent of winning money or material goods * Legal wager, required by both parties at the preliminary hearin ...

Guayaneco Archipelago The Guayaneco Archipelago ( es, Archipiélago Guayaneco) is an archipelago in southern Chile. It consists of 2 main islands, :es:Isla Wager (to the east), :es:Isla Byron (to the west), and many smaller islands. It was heavily glaciated during ...

. Part of the survivors, including John Byron, were led into the Spanish settlements of

by the Chono cheftain Martín Olleta through

. Writer

Benjamín Subercaseaux Benjamín Subercaseaux Zañartu (1902–1973) was a Chilean writer and researcher. He won the Chilean National Prize for Literature in 1963. Subercaseaux was the son of Benjamín Subercaseaux Browne and Ida Zañartu Luca. His father died shortly ...

visited Taitao Peninsula in 1946 reporting to have seen footsteps and fresh human feces he thought indicated that indigenous Chonos, as known from the historical record, still existed. As result of its difficult access and isolation the peninsula is largely unexplored.

Vegetation

The vegetation types of the peninsula vary. In the western fringes of the peninsula, towards Tres Montes Peninsula, a

shrubland Shrubland, scrubland, scrub, brush, or bush is a plant community characterized by vegetation dominated by shrubs, often also including grasses, herbs, and geophytes. Shrubland may either occur naturally or be the result of human activity. It m ...

of ''c''. 2 meters high '' Pilgerodendron uvifera'' and ''

Nothofagus nitida ''Nothofagus nitida'' (Chiloé's coigue) is an evergreen tree, native to southern Chile and Argentina. It is found from latitude 40° S to Última Esperanza ( 53° S). Description Up to 35 m (115 ft) height and 2 m (6.5 ft ...

'' grows. Amidst this shrubland occasional peatlands and forest exists.Luebert & Pliscoff, pp. 206–210. In the central parts of the peninsula, including the shores of Presidente Ríos Lake, forests of ''

Nothofagus betuloides ''Nothofagus betuloides'', Magellan's beech or ''guindo'', is a tree native to southern Patagonia. In 1769, Sir Joseph Banks collected a specimen of the tree in Tierra del Fuego during Captain Cook's first voyage. Its occurrence on Hornos Isl ...

'' and ''

Drimys winteri ''Drimys winteri'', the winter's bark or canelo, is a slender tree in the family Winteraceae, growing up to tall. It is native to the Magellanic and Valdivian temperate rain forests of Chile and Argentina, where it is a dominant tree in the coas ...

'' is to be found.

Cushion A cushion is a soft bag of some ornamental material, usually stuffed with wool, hair, feathers, polyester staple fiber, non-woven material, cotton, or even paper torn into fragments. It may be used for sitting or kneeling upon, or to soften th ...

peatlands of ''

Donatia fascicularis ''Donatia fascicularis'' is a species of cushion plant in the family Donatiaceae and is closely related to species in the family Stylidiaceae. It is found in the alpine and subalpine regions of western Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. It is the ...

'' and ''

Oreobolus obtusangulus ''Oreobolus obtusangulus'' is a thick cushion grass native to South America. It grows in the highlands of Colombia and Venezuela, alpine wetlands of Central Chile and Neuquén Province of Argentina. Further south it grows at lower elevations incl ...

'' occupy the higher mountains of the peninsula. In the east near

San Rafael Lake San Rafael Lake is an arc-shaped coastal lake located in the Aysén del General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo Region of Chile, within the national park that bears its name. To the north the lagoon is connected to the Moraleda Channel, to the south ...

a ''

'' forest with an

understory In forestry and ecology, understory (American English), or understorey (Commonwealth English), also known as underbrush or undergrowth, includes plant life growing beneath the forest canopy without penetrating it to any great extent, but abov ...

of ''

Desfontainia fulgens ''Desfontainia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Columelliaceae, though it was placed formerly in Loganiaceae, Potaliaceae (later subsumed in Gentianaceae), or a family of its own, Desfontainiaceae. The genus was named for the Fre ...

'', ''

Blechnum magellanicum ''Lomariocycas magellanica'', synonym ''Blechnum magellanicum'', ''costilla de vaca'' (Chilean Spanish for ''cow's rib'') or ''palmilla'', is a medium-sized fern native with a natural range from Talca at 35°S, to the Magallanes Region in Chile ...

'', '' Fuchsia magellanica'' and '' Raukaua laetevirens'' grow.Luebert & Pliscoff, pp. 200–201.

Geology

Near the peninsula lies the

Chile Triple Junction The Chile Triple Junction (or Chile Margin Triple Junction) is a geologic triple junction located on the seafloor of the Pacific Ocean off Taitao and Tres Montes Peninsula on the southern coast of Chile. Here three tectonic plates meet: the South ...

where the

tectonic plates Plate tectonics (from the la, label=Late Latin, tectonicus, from the grc, τεκτονικός, lit=pertaining to building) is the generally accepted scientific theory that considers the Earth's lithosphere to comprise a number of large te ...

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest contine ...

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

and

Nazca Nazca (; sometimes spelled Nasca; qu, Naska) is a city and system of valleys on the southern coast of Peru. It is also the name of the largest existing town in the Nazca Province. The name is derived from the Nazca culture, which flourished in ...

meets.

Taitao ophiolite Taitao ophiolite ( es, Ofiolita de Taitao) is an ophiolite in Taitao Peninsula of western Patagonia, Chile. The ophiolite crops out about 10 km w to the east of the Peru-Chile trench and 50 km to the south of Chile Triple Junction —two features ...

and other geological features are associated to the triple junction. As the

Chile Rise The Chile Ridge, also known as the Chile Rise, is a submarine oceanic ridge formed by the divergent plate boundary between the Nazca Plate and the Antarctic Plate. It extends from the triple junction of the Nazca, Pacific, and Antarctic plates t ...

has

subducted Subduction is a geological process in which the oceanic lithosphere is recycled into the Earth's mantle at convergent boundaries. Where the oceanic lithosphere of a tectonic plate converges with the less dense lithosphere of a second plate, the ...

beneath the South American Plate at Taitao Peninsula it has caused an sequence of three

ridge A ridge or a mountain ridge is a geographical feature consisting of a chain of mountains or hills that form a continuous elevated crest for an extended distance. The sides of the ridge slope away from the narrow top on either side. The line ...

–continent collisions starting about 5 million years ago.

Sources

;Bibliography * {{Coord, 46, 30, S, 74, 25, W, source:GNS_scale:2500000, display=title Peninsulas of Chile Landforms of Aysén Region