Little south
The Little South is one of the five natural areas in Chile . Alternative names are Chilean Switzerland or Deforestation Schile . In Spanish the term Zona Sur is common.
geography
location
Like all of Chile, the Little South is bordered by the Andes in the east and the Pacific Ocean in the west. Its northern and southern borders are not exactly definable, they are often given with the Río Bío Bío in the north and the island of Chiloé in the south or with the latitudes 38 ° to 42 ° or 43 ° south or determined by the political boundaries of the Chilean regions. The three regions de la Araucanía , de los Ríos and de los Lagos are usually included in the Little South . The so-called Great South joins in the south and the Chilean central zone in the north .
The most important cities are the three regional capitals Temuco , Valdivia and Puerto Montt .
Volcanism and tectonics
The Little South, like almost all of Chile, is strongly characterized by volcanism . The area lies over the subduction zone between the Nazca and South American plates , causing volcanic activity and frequent tremors.
The strongest earthquake ever recorded, the Great Chile earthquake of 1960, had its epicenter here .
climate
Climatically, the Little South is characterized by periodic winter precipitation and warm-moderate temperatures. There are evergreen forests and meadows. The temperate rainforest native here is called the Valdivian rainforest .
traffic
In 1912 the rail link between Santiago and Puerto Montt was completed. Today the rail connection for passenger traffic ends in Temuco. The southern cities are served by buses.
The western part of the Panamericana runs as the Ruta 5 motorway in north-south direction through the Little South and ends in Quellón on Chiloé. The partially unpaved Carretera Austral leads south from Puerto Montt to the Región de Aisén . There are also ferries from Puerto Montt to Puerto Natales in the Great South .
Airports exist in the regional capitals Valdivia, Osorno and Puerto Montt.
history
Before and during the Spanish colonial era, the area was inhabited by the Mapuche people - in the north by the Pehuenchen , in the south by the Huilliche .
The conquistador Pedro de Valdivia explored the area in the middle of the 16th century and founded numerous cities. Between 1599 and 1604 these were destroyed by the Mapuche and abandoned by the Spanish. It was not until 1645 that one of these cities, Valdivia, was re-established and heavily fortified both on land and on the sea. In addition to the island of Chiloé, this remained the only European base in this area during the Spanish period.
After Chile gained independence, the Little South became the center of European and especially German immigration from the middle of the 19th century .
In 1960 the area was devastated by a devastating earthquake and subsequent tsunami .
literature
- Winfried Golte: The South Chilean Lake District. Settlement and economic development since the 18th century. Dümmlers Verlag, Bonn 1973. ISBN 3427754715
- Klaus Heine: The Little South of Chile - a 'classic' glacial landscape. New field research and results on the problem of the interhemispheric correlation of Young Pleistocene glacial events. In: Bamberger Geographische Schriften 19, 1999, pp. 77-105.
Web links
Coordinates: 39 ° 19 ′ 48.3 ″ S , 72 ° 20 ′ 19.6 ″ W.