General Carrera Lake / Lake Buenos Aires topographic map

Name: General Carrera Lake / Lake Buenos Aires topographic map, elevation, terrain.

Location: General Carrera Lake / Lake Buenos Aires, Santa Cruz Province, Argentina (-46.89785 -72.81874 -46.28622 -71.13679)

Average elevation: 893 m

Minimum elevation: 152 m

Maximum elevation: 2,694 m

The lake occupies a continental-scale graben formed by SWS-ENE normal faults that have resulted in down-dropping the bottom of the lake to 350 meters (1,150 ft) below mean sea level. Preservation of younger lithostratigraphic units within the graben form reverse stratigraphy with older units exposed at higher topographic elevations to the south. The graben channeled mountain glaciers which formed terminal moraine helping to modify the present-day shape of the lake. The tectonic activity that formed the depression can be inferred to subduction of the triple joint that has occurred over the past 20 million years, as indicated by ripple marks in volcaniclastic sediments observed along the southern shoreline. There is some speculation on whether the tectonics and crustal heat flow in the lake area are influenced by the asthenospheric window that exists beneath the crust in this region of Patagonia.

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