General Aspects

Los Glaciares National Park, located in Santa Cruz Province, Argentina, covers an area of ??724,000 hectares. He was appointed National Park and is the largest in Argentina. His place names refers to its glaciers, some of them among the largest in the Southern Hemisphere outside Antarctica. Because of its importance as a global reserve of fresh water in 1981 was declared World Heritage Site. Of the 47 major glaciers of the Patagonian Andean Cordillera 13 flow into the Atlantic Ocean. In other regions of the world, glaciers are, at least to an altitude of 2,500 meters, but the referral, due to its huge size, are found at 1,500 m, slipping to 200 meters. In addition there are over 200 glaciers of lesser magnitude, independent of the Patagonian Ice Field. As a result of this huge ice system, originate two large lakes: Lake Argentino and Lake Viedma, which pour their waters into the Atlantic Ocean across the province through the Santa Cruz River.