Glacier Inventory in Chile: current status and recent glacier variations

Abstract

The glacier inventory in Chile covers all the arid north of the country (18° to 33° S) and the central part down to the lake district (33° to 41° 30′ S) except for the Río Maule and Río Itata basins (35° to 37° S). The most glaciated region of Chile is Patagonia, characterized by a wet climate, but glacier data are lacking over vast areas of this region. A total area of 5515 km 2 has been inventoried in Chile; this does not include Hielo Patagónico Sur (southern Patagonia ice field), by far the largest glaciated area in Chile with an area of 13000km 2 , part of which is in Argentina. Including the uninventoried giaciers of Maule, Itata and Patagonia, the total glaciated area in Chile is estimated to be 201715 km 2 . Information on glacier variations in the north of Chile is very scarce. In the central and south-central parts, and especially in Patagonia where glacier variations have been most studied, there is ample evidence for general glacier retreat from a neoglacial maximum, although a few glacier advances have been reported. The generalized retreat might be a result of tropospheric warming observed in the second half of the 20th century.