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 km2 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 13000km2, 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 km2. 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.