The Cordillera Paine is a mountain group in Torres del Paine National Park 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 eas ...

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 g ...

. 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 us ...

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 Are ...

, 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, whos ...

. It belongs to the Commune of Torres del Paine in Última Esperanza Province of Magallanes and Antártica Chilena Region. 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 Armando Aste (6 January 1926 – 1 September 2017) was one of the most influential Italian alpinists of the postwar period. Aste was born in Rovereto near Trento, Trentino. He led the first Italian ascent of the Eiger north face in 1962, toget ...

. 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, ...

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

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 un ...

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 apar ...

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 ...

, 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 epi ...

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 ...

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

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 up ...

history.

Hiking

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 ...

by the

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international coope ...

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. 175 - Torres del Paines - Janvier 2010

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

Peaks

Geology

Hiking

See also

References

External links