MONGABAY.COM
Mongabay.com seeks to raise interest in and appreciation of wild lands and wildlife, while examining the impact of emerging trends in climate, technology, economics, and finance on conservation and development (more)
WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
|
|
Chile
Index
Size: 756,950 square kilometers (nearly twice
the size of
California); land area: 748,800 square kilometers,
including Easter
Island (Isla de Pascua; 118 square kilometers), Islas Juan
Fernández (179 square kilometers), and Isla Sala y Gómez,
but
excluding claimed Chilean Antarctic Territory (Territorio
Chileno
Antártico), which covers 1,249,675 square kilometers (not
recognized by the United States).
Coastline: 6,435 kilometers (continental
Chile).
Maritime Claims: Contiguous zone: twenty-four
nautical
miles; continental shelf: 200 nautical miles; exclusive
economic
zone: 200 nautical miles; territorial sea: twelve nautical
miles.
Disputes: Bolivia has sought a sovereign
corridor to
Pacific Ocean since ceding Antofagasta to Chile in 1883;
Río Lauca
water rights in dispute between Bolivia and Chile; short
section of
southern boundary with Argentina is indefinite; Lago del
Desierto
(Desert Lake) region under international arbitration as a
result of
a border conflict between Argentina and Chile; Chile's
territorial
claim in Antarctica partially overlaps Argentina's claim.
Topography and Climate: One of narrowest
countries in the
world, averaging 177 kilometers wide (ninety kilometers
wide at its
thinnest point in the south and 380 kilometers across at
its widest
point in the north). Rugged Andes Mountains run down
eastern side
of country. Cordillera Domeyko (Domeyko mountain chain) in
northern
part of country runs along the coast parallel to the
Andes. Five
north-to-south natural regions: desert far north (Norte
Grande),
consisting of dry brown hills and sparse vegetation and
containing
extremely arid Atacama Desert and Andean plateau; near
north (Norte
Chico), a semiarid region between Río Copiapó and
Santiago; Central
Chile (Chile Central), most densely populated region,
including
three largest metropolitan areas--Santiago, Valparaíso,
and
Concepción--and the fertile Central Valley (Valle
Central), with a
temperate, Mediterranean climate; heavily forested south
(Sur de
Chile), south of Río Bío-Bío, containing cool and very
rainy
(especially during winter) lake district and crisscrossed
by
hundreds of rivers; far south (Chile Austral), sparsely
populated,
forested, constantly cold and stormy, with many fjords,
inlets,
twisting peninsulas, and islands. Land use: 7 percent
arable (of
which 29 percent irrigated), 16 percent meadows and
pasture, 21
percent forest and woodland, 15 percent other, including 1
percent
irrigated. Temperate rain forest totals 14,164,045
hectares. Annual
rate of deforestation (photos | news) (1981-85): 0.7 percent. Nearly
607,030
hectares clear-cut (stripped of all trees) since 1978.
Seasons:
spring--September 21 to December 20; summer--December 21
to March
20; autumn--March 21 to June 20; winter--June 21 to
September 20.
Principal Rivers: Aconcagua, Baker, Bío-Bío,
Imperial,
Loa (Chile's longest at about 483 kilometers), Maipo,
Maule,
Palena, Toltén, Valdivia.
Principal Lakes: Del Toro, General Carrera,
Llanquihue,
Puyehue, Ranco, Rupanco, Sarmiento, Villarrica.
Data as of March 1994
|
|