Patagonian lang.png

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 glaciers in the west and deserts, tablelands and steppes to the east. Patagonia is bounded by the Pacific Ocean on the west, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and many bodies of water that connect them, such as the Strait of Magellan, the Beagle Channel, and the Drake Passage to the south.

The Colorado and Barrancas rivers, which run from the Andes to the Atlantic, are commonly considered the northern limit of Argentine Patagonia. The archipelago of Tierra del Fuego is sometimes included as part of Patagonia. Most geographers and historians locate the northern limit of Chilean Patagonia at Huincul Fault, in Araucanía Region.Manuel Enrique Schilling; Richard WalterCarlson; AndrésTassara; Rommulo Vieira Conceição; Gustavo Walter Bertotto; Manuel Vásquez; Daniel Muñoz; Tiago Jalowitzki; Fernanda Gervasoni; Diego Morata (2017). "The origin of Patagonia revealed by Re-Os systematics of mantle xenoliths." ''Precambrian Research'', volumen 294: 15-32.Zunino, H.; Matossian, B.; Hidalgo, R. (2012). "Poblamiento y desarrollo de enclaves turísticos en la Norpatagonia chileno-argentina. Migración y frontera en un espacio binacional." (Population and development of tourist enclaves in the Chilean-Argentine Norpatagonia. Migration and the border in a binational space), '' Revista de Geografía Norte Grande'', 53: 137-158.Zunino, M.; Espinoza, L.; Vallejos-Romero A. (2016) Los migrantes por estilo de vida como agentes de transformación en la Norpatagonia chilena, ''Revista de Estudios Sociales'', 55 (2016): 163-176.

At the time of the Spanish arrival, Patagonia was inhabited by multiple indigenous tribes. In a small portion of northwestern Patagonia, indigenous peoples practiced agriculture, while in the remaining territory, peoples lived as hunter-gatherers, traveling by foot in eastern Patagonia or by dugout canoe and dalca in the fjords and channels. In colonial times indigenous peoples of northeastern Patagonia adopted a horseriding lifestyle. While the interest of the Spanish Empire had been chiefly to keep other European powers away from Patagonia, independent Chile and Argentina began to colonize the territory slowly over the course of the 19th and early 20th centuries. This process brought a decline of the indigenous populations, whose lives and habitats were disrupted, while at the same time thousands of Europeans, Argentines, Chilotes and mainland Chileans settled in Patagonia. Border disputes between Argentina and Chile were recurrent in the 20th century.

The contemporary economy of eastern Patagonia revolves around sheep farming and oil and gas extraction, while in western Patagonia fishing, salmon aquaculture, and tourism dominate. Culturally, Patagonia has a varied heritage, including Criollo, Mestizo, Indigenous, German, Croat, Italian and Welsh influences.

Etymology

The name Patagonia comes from the word '' patagón''.Antonio Pigafetta, '' Relazione del primo viaggio intorno al mondo'', 1524: "Il capitano generale nominò questi popoli Patagoni.
A Brief Declaration of the Vyage abowte the Worlde by Antonie Pygafetta Vincentine, Rycharde Eden, ''The Decades of the Newe Worlde or West India'', London, William Powell, 1555.
The original word was likely in Magellan's native Portuguese (''patagão'') or the Spanish of his men (''patagón''). It was later interpreted later as "bigfoot", but the etymology refers to a literary character in a Spanish novel of the early 16th century:

''Patagon'', said to be engendred by a beast in the woods, being the strangest, most misshapen, and counterfeit creature in the world. He hath good understanding, is amorous of women, and keepeth company with one of whom, it is said, he was engendred. He hath the face of a Dogge, great ears, which hang down upon his shoulders, his teeth sharp and big, standing out of his mouth very much: his feet are like a Harts, and he runneth wondrous lightly. Such as have seen him, tell marvelous matters of him, because he chaseth ordinarily among the mountains, with two Lyons in a chain like a lease, and a bow in his han
Anthony Munday, ''The Famous and Renowned Historie of Primaleon of Greece'', 1619, cap.XXXIII: "How Primaleon... found the Grand Patagon"

Magellan used this term in 1520 to describe the native tribes of the region, whom his expedition thought to be giants. The people he called the Patagons are now believed to have been the Tehuelche, who tended to be taller than Europeans of the time. Argentine researcher Miguel Doura observed that the name Patagonia possibly derives from the ancient Greek region of modern Turkey called Paphlagonia, possible home of the ''patagon'' personage in the chivalric romances ''Primaleon'' printed in 1512, ten years before Magellan arrived in these southern lands. This hypothesis was published in a 2011 ''New Review of Spanish Philology'' report.

There are various placenames in the Chiloé Archipelago with Chono etymologies despite the main indigenous language of the archipelago at the arrival of the Spanish being Mapudungun. A theory postulated by chronicler José Pérez García explains this holding that the Cuncos (also known as Veliches) settled in Chiloé Island in Pre-Hispanic times as a consequence of a push from more northern Huilliches who in turn were being displaced by Mapuches. While being outside traditional Huilliche territory the western Patagonian volcanoes Michimahuida, Hornopirén and Chaitén have Huilliche etymologies.

In Chubut Province modern toponymy comes from the word "chupat" belonging to a transitional language between the southern and northern Tehuelche ethnic groups that were located in that region called Tewsün or Teushen. The word means transparency and is related to the clarity and purity of the river that bears that name and runs through the province. It is also related to the origin of the Welsh pronunciation of the word "chupat" which later became "Chubut". It is called "Camwy" in Patagonian Welsh. Chupat, Chubut and Camwy have the same meaning and are used to talk about the river and the province. Welsh settlers and placenames are associated with one of the projects of the Argentine state, Project Hiraeth.

Due to the language, culture and location, many Patagonians do not consider themselves Latinos and proudly call themselves Patagonians instead. People from Y Wladfa, Laurie Island, the Atlantic Islands, Antarctica (including the Chilean town in Antarctica, "The Stars Village", and the Argentine civilian settlement, "Hope Base"), other non-latin speaking areas use this term as a patriotic and inclusive demonym. A Patagonian is a person that is part of the Patagonia region, language and culture. That person could be a citizen from Chilean Patagonia, Argentine Patagonia, or of native communities that existed before the land was divided by The Boundary Treaty of 1881.

Patagonia is divided between Western Patagonia (Chile) and Eastern Patagonia (Argentina) and several territories are still under dispute and claiming their rights. Mapuche people came from the Chilean Andes and voted to remain in different sides of Patagonia. Welsh settlers came from Wales and North America and voted to remain in Patagonia, when the treaty was signed, they voted for culture and administration to be apart from the country keeping the settlement, language, schools, traditions, regional dates, flag, anthems and celebrations. Patagonians also live abroad in settlements like Saltcoats, Saskatchewan, Canada; New South Wales, Australia; South Africa; the Falkland Islands; and North America.

Population and land area

Largest cities

Physical geography

Argentine Patagonia is for the most part a region of steppe-like plains, rising in a succession of 13 abrupt terraces about at a time, and covered with an enormous bed of shingle almost bare of vegetation.''Patagonia: Natural History, Prehistory and Ethnography at the Uttermost End of the Earth'', C. McEwan, L.A. and A. Prieto (eds), Princeton University Press with British Museum Press, 1997. In the hollows of the plains are ponds or lakes of fresh and brackish water. Towards Chilean territory, the shingle gives way to porphyry, granite, and basalt lavas, and animal life becomes more abundant. Vegetation is more luxuriant, consisting principally of southern beech and conifers. The high rainfall against the western Andes ( Wet Andes) and the low sea-surface temperatures offshore give rise to cold and humid air masses, contributing to the ice fields and glaciers, the largest ice fields in the Southern Hemisphere outside of Antarctica.

Among the depressions by which the plateau is intersected transversely, the principal ones are the Gualichu, south of the Río Negro, the Maquinchao and Valcheta (through which previously flowed the waters of Nahuel Huapi Lake, which now feed the Limay River), the Senguerr (spelled Senguer on most Argentine maps and within the corresponding region), and the Deseado River. Besides these transverse depressions (some of them marking lines of ancient interoceanic communication), others were occupied by either more or less extensive lakes, such as the Yagagtoo, Musters, and Colhue Huapi, and others situated to the south of Puerto Deseado in the center of the country.

Across much of Patagonia east of the Andes, volcanic eruptions have created formation of basaltic lava plateaus during the Cenozoic. The plateaus are of different ages with the older –of Neogene and Paleogene age– being located at higher elevations than Pleistocene and Holocene lava plateaus and outcrops.

Erosion, which is caused principally by the sudden melting and retreat of ice aided by tectonic changes, has scooped out a deep longitudinal depression, best in evidence where in contact with folded Cretaceous rocks, which are lifted up by the Cenozoic granite. It generally separates the plateau from the first lofty hills, whose ridges are generally called the pre-Cordillera. To the west of these, a similar longitudinal depression extends all along the foot of the snowy Andean Cordillera. This latter depression contains the richest, most fertile land of Patagonia. Lake basins along the Cordillera were also gradually excavated by ice streams, including Lake Argentino and Lake Fagnano, as well as coastal bays such as Bahía Inútil.

Geology

The geological limit of Patagonia has been proposed to be Huincul Fault, which forms a major discontinuity. The fault truncates various structures including the Pampean orogen found further north. The ages of base rocks change abruptly across the fault. Discrepancies have been mentioned among geologists on the origin of the Patagonian landmass. Víctor Ramos has proposed that the Patagonian landmass originated as an allochthonous terrane that separated from Antarctica and docked in South America 250 to 270 Mya in the Permian period. A 2014 study by R.J. Pankhurst and coworkers rejects any idea of a far-traveled Patagonia, claiming it is likely of parautochtonous (nearby) origin.

The Mesozoic and Cenozoic deposits have revealed a most interesting vertebrate fauna. This, together with the discovery of the perfect cranium of a chelonian of the genus '' Niolamia'', which is almost identical to ''Ninjemys oweni'' of the Pleistocene age in Queensland, forms an evident proof of the connection between the Australian and South American continents. The Patagonian ''Niolamia'' belongs to the Sarmienti Formation. Fossils of the mid-Cretaceous ''Argentinosaurus'', which may be the largest of all dinosaurs, have been found in Patagonia, and a model of the mid-Jurassic ''Piatnitzkysaurus'' graces the concourse of the Trelew airport (the skeleton is in the Trelew paleontological museum; the museum's staff has also announced the discovery of a species of dinosaur even bigger than ''Argentinosaurus''). Of more than paleontological interest, the middle Jurassic Los Molles Formation and the still richer late Jurassic ( Tithonian) and early Cretaceous (Berriasian) Vaca Muerta formation above it in the Neuquén basin are reported to contain huge hydrocarbon reserves (mostly gas in Los Molles, both gas and oil in Vaca Muerta) partly accessible through hydraulic fracturing. Other specimens of the interesting fauna of Patagonia, belonging to the Middle Cenozoic, are the gigantic wingless birds, exceeding in size any hitherto known, and the singular mammal ''Pyrotherium