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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Chile
Index
Central Chile (Chile Central), home to a majority of
the
population, includes the three largest metropolitan
areas--
Santiago, Valparaíso, and Concepción. It extends from
about
32° south latitude to about 38° south latitude. The
climate is of the
temperate Mediterranean type, with the amount of rainfall
increasing considerably and progressively from north to
south. In
the Santiago area, the average monthly temperatures are
about
19.5° C in the summer months of January and February and
7.5° C in
the winter months of June and July. The average monthly
precipitation is no more than a trace in January and
February and
69.7 millimeters in June and July. By contrast, in
Concepción the
average monthly temperatures are somewhat lower in the
summer at
17.6° C but higher in the winter at 9.3° C, and the amount
of rain is
much greater. In the summer, Concepción receives an
average of
twenty millimeters of rain per month; in June and July,
the city is
pounded by an average of 253 millimeters per month. The
numerous
rivers greatly increase their flow as a result of the
winter rains
and the spring melting of the Andean snows, and they
contract
considerably in the summer. The combination of abundant
snow in the
Andes and relatively moderate winter temperatures creates
excellent
conditions for Alpine skiing.
The topography of central Chile includes a coastal
range of
mountains running parallel to the Andes. Lying between the
two
mountain ranges is the so-called Central Valley, which
contains
some of the richest agricultural land in the country,
especially in
its northern portion. The area just north and south of
Santiago is
a large producer of fruits, including the grapes from
which the
best Chilean wines are made. Exports of fresh fruit began
to rise
dramatically in the mid-1970s because Chilean growers had
the
advantage of being able to reach markets in the Northern
Hemisphere
during that part of the world's winter. Most of these
exports, such
as grapes, apples, and peaches, go by refrigerator ships,
but some,
such as berries, go by air freight.
The southern portion of central Chile contains a
mixture of
some excellent agricultural lands, many of which were
covered
originally with old-growth forests. They were cleared for
agriculture but were soon exhausted of their organic
matter and
left to erode. Large tracts of this worn-out land, many of
them on
hilly terrain, have been reforested for the lumber,
especially for
the cellulose and paper industries. New investments during
the
1980s in these industries transformed the rural economy of
the
region. The pre-Andean highlands and some of the taller
and more
massive mountains in the coastal range (principally the
Cordillera
de Nahuelbuta) still contain large tracts of old-growth
forests of
remarkable beauty, some of which have been set aside as
national
parks. Between the coastal mountains and the ocean, many
areas of
central Chile contain stretches of land that are lower
than the
Central Valley and are generally quite flat. The longest
beaches
can be found in such sections.
Data as of March 1994
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