 |
|
|
Going to Extremes
Step into the world of writers and
photographers as they tell you about the best, worst, and
quirkiest places and adventures they encountered in
the field.
|
Get the facts behind the frame in
this online-only gallery. Pick an image and see the
photographer’s technical notes.
| 
Click
to ZOOM IN >>
Click
to ZOOM IN >>
Click
to ZOOM IN >>
Click
to ZOOM IN >>
Patagonia
Click to enlarge
>>
|
|
Article and Photographs by Carsten Peter
| Battling furious winds
and rain, a team of cavers explores a bleak island at
the bottom of the world. |
Get a taste of
what awaits you in print from this compelling
excerpt.
Inspired by the subpolar weather, I
came to think of the island’s marble plateau as a series
of rugged glaciers. In reality it is the remnant of a
coral reef system laid down between 260 and 315 million
years ago in a calm, tropical sea. High on the island,
above the forest, sprawled a scene nearly devoid of
color—glacier-like rock rendered in a thousand shades of
gray, constantly changing before our eyes like a mirage.
Fat drops of rain would fall, splattering light gray
rock with dark leopard spots or zebra stripes, followed
by driving sheets of rain that would slash across the
rock and turn it dark and shiny as coal. Then the wind
would rise and parts of the exposed rock would dry for a
moment, turning white, only to be soaked black again.
It rained like this practically every hour on
Madre de Dios, punctuated by occasional bursts of sleet
or hail—a furious bombardment of pinpricks that made you
want to clap a bucket over your head. The icy wind,
which howled in our ears and shook our legs, was so
strong that whatever fell from the sky came at us
sideways. High-velocity wind and rain had even blasted
away the exposed rock and left little wedges of
limestone trailing from the leeward side of volcanic
rock fragments deposited by glaciers. “This kind of
erosion feature has never been seen before,” said our
lead geomorphologist, Richard Maire. “These karst
islands are like a natural laboratory with a built-in
wind tunnel.” He estimates the rate of erosion at six
millimeters a century, one of the fastest rates on
Earth.
Get the whole story in the pages of National
Geographic magazine.
|
|
| |
| In More to Explore the
National Geographic magazine team shares some of its
best sources and other information. Special thanks to the
Research Division. |
|
|
|
|
Can you imagine
being a coral animal deposited in a warm sea millions of
years ago only to end up off the cold and wet coast of
southern Chile as part of the limestone found on Madre
de Dios Island? Plate tectonics, the movement of plates
on the Earth’s lithosphere, made such a journey
possible.
The limestone found on Madre de Dios
formed between 315 and 260 million years ago near the
Equator. After formation it was slowly transported on
top of what has become the plate below the Pacific Ocean
until it collided with the edge of South America, some
230 to 160 millions years ago. Part of the limestone
became stuck, or accreted, to South America. Limestone
of similar origin has also been found in other places,
including the margins of the modern Pacific Ocean in
Canada, Japan, and New Zealand. Chilean geologist
Constantino Mpodozis explains: “These areas all
represent pieces of ancient near-equatorial reef
limestone dispersed by the movement of the Pacific Ocean
floor and accreted against the bordering continents.”
—Michelle R. Harris
|
 | |
|
|
|
|
Ultima Patagonia Expedition 2000
www.speleo.com/ultima/gb/projet2.html
Check out the expedition’s website to learn more about
their work in southern Chile and to see photos of the
landscape and spectacular caves.
Cave Research Foundation
http://www.cave-research.org/
This
foundation promotes exploration and documentation of caves and
karst areas and aids in conservation and protection of these
resources.
Cave and Karst Terminology
wasg.iinet.net.au/terminol.html
Ever
wonder what a speleologist does? This site tells you about
speleology (the exploration, description, and scientific study
of caves and related phenomena) and also defines everything
from arthropods (animals found in caves) to the phreatic zone
(the zone where voids in the rock are completely filled with
water).
The Karst Waters Institute
http://www.karstwaters.org/
Find technical
information on karst research and caving techniques at this
site. The Karst Waters Institute promotes the management of
water resources and provides education and training. You can
also download a lexicon of cave and karst terminology.
The National Speleological Society
http://www.caves.org/
With a library,
bookstore, and discussion boards, this organization’s website
is a good resource for people interested in protecting,
enjoying, and studying caves.
Top
|
Hudson, Rex A., ed. Chile: a
Country Study. Federal Research Division, Library of
Congress, 1994.
McEwan, Colin, Luis A. Borrero, and
Alfredo Prieto, eds. Patagonia: Natural History, Prehistory
and Ethnography at the Uttermost End of the Earth.
Princeton University Press, 1997.
Stamp, Sir Dudley,
and Audrey Clark. A Glossary of Geographical Terms, 3rd
ed. Longman, 1979.
White, William B. Geomorphology
and Hydrology of Karst Terrains. Oxford University Press,
1988.
Top
|
Crouch, Gregory. “Stone
Cold Ascent,” National Geographic (March 2000), 96-115.
Amatt, John and others. Voices From the Summit: The
World’s Great Mountaineers on the Future of Climbing.
National Geographic Books, 2000.
Bangs, Richard.
“Torres del Paine,” National Geographic Traveler
(October 1999), 136-138.
Chiappe, Luis. “Dinosaur
Embryos,” National Geographic (December 1998), 34-41.
Brower, Kenneth. “Chile by Land and Sea,” National
Geographic Traveler (September/October 1997), 90-104.
Shreeve, James. “Uncovering Patagonia’s Lost World,”
National Geographic (December 1997), 120-137.
Franklin, William L. “Patagonia Puma: The Lord of the
Land’s End,” National Geographic (January 1991),
102-113.
“Journey Through Wild, Windswept Patagonia,”
National Geographic World (August 1988), 9-12.
Bartlett, Des. “Patagonia’s Wild Shore: Where Two
Worlds Meet,” National Geographic (March 1976),
298-321.
Hatcher, J. B. “The Indian Tribes of Southern
Patagonia, Tierra del Fuego, and the Adjoining Islands,”
National Geographic (January 1901), 12-22.
Hatcher, J. B. “Some Geographic Features of Southern
Patagonia, With a Discussion of Their Origin,” National
Geographic (February 1900), 41-55.
Hatcher, J. B.
“Patagonia,” National Geographic (November 1897),
305-319.
Top
| | |
|
|
