Potrok Aike is a

maar A maar is a broad, low-relief volcanic crater caused by a phreatomagmatic eruption (an explosion which occurs when groundwater comes into contact with hot lava or magma). A maar characteristically fills with water to form a relatively shallow ...

in the

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 gl ...

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''Roman province, provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire ...

of Santa Cruz,

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

. It has a roughly circular shape and an average diameter of 2,700 metres. It is located just 2,200 metres north of the Argentina-Chile border. It is a

lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...

and part of the

Pali-Aike Volcanic Field The Pali-Aike volcanic field is a volcanic field along the Argentina–Chile border. It is part of a family of back-arc volcanoes in Patagonia, which formed from processes involving the collision of the Chile Ridge with the Peru–Chile Trench. ...

. The Potrok Aike Maar Lake Sediment Archive Drilling Project (PASADO) bore a number of ICDP drill holes for October–November 2008.PASADO Project
/ref> The aim is to investigate the crater-filling sediments and the underlying volcaniclastic deposits.

Climate

Notes

Lakes of Santa Cruz Province, Argentina Maars of Argentina Volcanoes of Santa Cruz Province, Argentina {{SantaCruzAR-geo-stub