Última Esperanza Sound ( es, Seno de Última Esperanza, ‘Last Hope Sound’ or 'Inlet of Last Hope') is an

inlet An inlet is a (usually long and narrow) indentation of a shoreline, such as a small arm, bay, sound, fjord, lagoon or marsh, that leads to an enclosed larger body of water such as a lake, estuary, gulf or marginal sea. Overview In marine ...

stretching from the mouth of

Eberhard Fjord Eberhard Fjord is an arm of Seno Ultima Esperanza in the Patagonian region of Chile. This surface water body was named after Hermann Eberhard, the first European to explore this region. Eberhard used the fjord to find the Cueva del Milodón, wher ...

to the outskirts of Monte Balmaceda, within the Magallanes Basin. The navigator

Juan Ladrillero Juan Ladrillero (b. c. 1490 in Moguer – 1559) was a 16th-century Spanish navigator and explorer who from 1557 to 1559 explored the coast of Chile from Valdivia (39° 48’ S) to the Barbara Channel (54° S, between Clarence Island and Santa ...

named it so in 1557, because he felt it was this direction was his last chance to reach the

Strait of Magellan The Strait of Magellan (), also called the Straits of Magellan, is a navigable sea route in southern Chile separating mainland South America to the north and Tierra del Fuego to the south. The strait is considered the most important natural ...

. The inlet ends at a glacier, and not at the strait. This inlet is tidal, and drains an extensive basin. It receives the waters of almost all the surface waters of

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 ...

through the Serrano River. The sound occupies a valley carved by

glacial A glacial period (alternatively glacial or glaciation) is an interval of time (thousands of years) within an ice age that is marked by colder temperatures and glacier advances. Interglacials, on the other hand, are periods of warmer climate betwe ...

action. During the last glacial period glaciers reached their

maximum In mathematical analysis, the maxima and minima (the respective plurals of maximum and minimum) of a function, known collectively as extrema (the plural of extremum), are the largest and smallest value of the function, either within a given r ...

extent in Última Esperanza Sound about 48,000 years ago. Last Hope Sound along with the Señoret Channel forms a navigation route, which connects

Puerto Natales Puerto Natales is a city in Chilean Patagonia. It is the capital of both the commune of Natales and the province of Última Esperanza, one of the four provinces that make up the Magallanes and Antartica Chilena Region in the southernmost part ...

with several protected areas of the region. In the vicinity of the Eberhard Fjord is located Cueva del Milodón Natural Monument, where remains have been recovered of the

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

ground sloth Ground sloths are a diverse group of extinct sloths in the mammalian superorder Xenarthra. The term is used to refer to all extinct sloths because of the large size of the earliest forms discovered, compared to existing tree sloths. The Caribb ...

along with a

settlement Settlement may refer to: * Human settlement, a community where people live *Settlement (structural), the distortion or disruption of parts of a building *Closing (real estate), the final step in executing a real estate transaction *Settlement (fin ...

of prehistoric humans.C.M.Hogan, 2008

References

* Bailey Willis (1914) Argentina Dirección General de Ferrocarriles Nacionales, Argentina Comisión de Estudios Hidrológicos,''Northern Patagonia: Character and Resources'', Scribner press, 464 pages * C. Michael Hogan, ''Cueva del Milodon'', Megalithic Portal, 13 April 200

* * Abbey Mitchell (1924) Mexico district General de Nacionales, Barcelona Estudios, lodon', Megalithic Portal, 13 April 200

* *

Line notes

Bodies of water of Magallanes Region Última Esperanza Province Sounds of Chile {{MagellanAntarctic-geo-stub

See also

References

Line notes