La Portada (

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 ...

: "The Gateway") is a

natural arch A natural arch, natural bridge, or (less commonly) rock arch is a natural landform where an arch has formed with an opening underneath. Natural arches commonly form where inland cliffs, coastal cliffs, fins or stacks are subject to erosion ...

on the coast 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 ...

, north of

Antofagasta Antofagasta () is a port city in northern Chile, about north of Santiago. It is the capital of Antofagasta Province and Antofagasta Region. According to the 2015 census, the city has a population of 402,669. After the Spanish American wars ...

. It is one of fifteen natural monuments included among the

protected areas of Chile The protected areas of Chile are areas that have natural beauty or significant historical value protected by the government of Chile. These protected areas cover over , which is 19% of the territory of Chile. The National System of Protected Wil ...

. There is another similar but smaller structure in the

spa town A spa town is a resort town based on a mineral spa (a developed mineral spring). Patrons visit spas to "take the waters" for their purported health benefits. Thomas Guidott set up a medical practice in the English town of Bath in 1668. He ...

Pucatrihue Pucatrihue is a settlement, beach and balneario located at coast of Osorno Province, southern Chile. Its economy revolves around tourism subsistence farming Subsistence agriculture occurs when farmers grow food crops to meet the needs of thems ...

Osorno Province Osorno Province ( es, Provincia de Osorno) is one of the four provinces in the southern Chilean region of Los Lagos (X). The province has an area of and a population of 221,496 distributed across seven communes ( Spanish: ''comunas''). The provi ...

Description

The La Portada Natural Monument covers an area of 31.27

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100- metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre is ...

s (77.27 acres), and its geomorphological features and remaining fossils stand out in the form of an arch. The arch of La Portada is 43 m (140 ft) high, 23 m (75 ft) wide, and 70 m (230 ft) long. It has a base of black

andesite Andesite () is a volcanic rock of intermediate composition. In a general sense, it is the intermediate type between silica-poor basalt and silica-rich rhyolite. It is fine-grained (aphanitic) to porphyritic in texture, and is composed predo ...

stone, around which are arranged marine

sedimentary rock Sedimentary rocks are types of rock that are formed by the accumulation or deposition of mineral or organic particles at Earth's surface, followed by cementation. Sedimentation is the collective name for processes that cause these particles ...

s, a stratum of yellowing

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...

, and layers of the remaining fossils of shells dating back 35 to 2 million years ago. All this was formed during a long process of marine erosion. The arch is surrounded by coastal cliffs that were also formed by marine erosion. They reach a maximum height of 52 m above sea level. On 5 October 1990, it was declared a natural monument under Supreme Decree #51 of the Ministry of Agriculture, published in the ''Diario Oficial''. Since March 2003, this natural monument remains closed due to a landslide of an important part of its cliffs, which blocked access to its beach. For this reason, a remodeling of the access route and its surroundings is planned.

Fauna

The natural monument constitutes an observation site for guano birds such as

Peruvian booby The Peruvian booby (''Sula variegata'') is an endemic bird of the Peruvian current, and an important predator of the marine community to which it belongs. Its distribution is much less widespread than other closely related booby species. It is th ...

(''Sula variegata'') and

Inca tern The Inca tern (''Larosterna inca'') is a tern in the family Laridae. It is the only member of the genus ''Larosterna''. This uniquely plumaged bird breeds on the coasts of Peru and Chile, and is restricted to the Humboldt Current. In 2021 a si ...

s (''Larosterna inca''), as well as Guanay cormorants (''Phalacrocorax bougainvillii''),

kelp gull The kelp gull (''Larus dominicanus''), also known as the Dominican gull, is a gull that breeds on coasts and islands through much of the Southern Hemisphere. The nominate ''L. d. dominicanus'' is the subspecies found around South America, part ...

s (''Larus dominicanus''),

grey gull The grey gull, also known as garuma gull (''Leucophaeus modestus'') is a medium-sized gull native to South America. Unusual among gulls, it breeds inland in the extremely dry Atacama Desert in northern Chile, although it is present as a non-bree ...

s (''Larus modestus''), Belcher's gulls (''Larus belcheri''), and pelicans. Occasionally one can also observe mammals such as the

South American fur seal The South American fur seal (''Arctocephalus australis'') breeds on the coasts of Peru, Chile, the Falkland Islands, Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil. The total population is around 250,000. However, population counts are sparse and outdated. Altho ...

(''Arctocephalus australis'') or the

common dolphin The common dolphin (''Delphinus delphis'') is the most abundant cetacean in the world, with a global population of about six million. Despite this fact and its vernacular name, the common dolphin is not thought of as the archetypal dolphin, wit ...

(''Delphinus delphis'').

Access

La Portada is located north of Antofagasta, which can be accessed by Route 1 Antofagasta-Tocopilla, from which an access road diverges at kilometer 20. The monument is found near the Cerro Moreno International Airport and La Chimba National Reserve.

References

External links

*
Corporación Nacional Forestal
*
Servicio Nacional de Turismo

La Portada
{{Natural Monuments of Chile Landforms of Antofagasta Region Natural monuments of Chile Rock formations of Chile Natural arches Protected areas of Antofagasta Region Coasts of Antofagasta Region