20091213 PNLG - Calafate 172

Lago Argentino is a lake in the Patagonian province of Santa Cruz, Argentina, at 50°2′S 72°4′W / 50.033°S 72.067°W / -50.033; -72.067. It is the biggest freshwater lake in Argentina, with a surface area of 1,466 km² (566 sq mi) (maximum width: 20 mi (32 km)). It has an average depth of 150 m (492 ft), and a maximum depth of 500 m (1,640 ft).

The lake lies within the Los Glaciares National Park, in a landscape with numerous glaciers and is fed by the glacial meltwater of several rivers, the water from Lake Viedma brought by the La Leona River, and many mountain streams. Its drainage basin amounts to more than 17,000 km² (6,564 sq mi). Waters from Lake Argentino flow into the Atlantic Ocean through the Santa Cruz River.

The glaciers, the nearby town of El Calafate and the lake itself are important tourist destinations. The lake in particular is appreciated for fishing. Perch, common galaxias, "puyen grande", lake trout and rainbow trout — in both anadromous and Potamodromous forms — are all found.

Parque Nacional Los Glaciares (Spanish: The Glaciers) is a national park in the Santa Cruz Province, in Argentine Patagonia. It comprises an area of 4459 km². In 1981 it was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

The national park, created in 1937, is the second largest in Argentina. Its name refers to the giant ice cap in the Andes range that feeds 47 large glaciers, of which only 13 flow towards the Atlantic Ocean. The ice cap is the largest outside of Antarctica and Greenland. In other parts of the world, glaciers start at a height of at least 2,500 meters above mean sea level, but due to the size of the ice cap, these glaciers begin at only 1,500m, sliding down to 200m AMSL, eroding the surface of the mountains that support them.

Argentina ⁱ/ˌɑrdʒənˈtiːnə/, officially the Argentine Republic (Spanish: República Argentina [reˈpuβlika aɾxenˈtina]), is the second largest country in both South America and the Latin America region.

The country is a federation of 23 provinces and the autonomous city of Buenos Aires, its capital and largest city. It is the eighth-largest country in the world by land area and the largest among Spanish-speaking nations by geographical area of 2,780,400 km2 and is the fourth by population, with over 41 million people. Argentina is a founding member of the United Nations, Mercosur, the Union of South American Nations, the Organization of Ibero-American States, the World Bank Group and the World Trade Organization, and is one of the G-15 and G-20 major economies.

This is a list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the Americas (North America, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean). Greenland has been included here as part of North America despite its cultural and political associations with Europe. Mexico leads the Americas hosting 31 sites, and is ranked the sixth in the world.

Patagonia is a region located at the southern end of South America, shared by Argentina and Chile. The region comprises the southern section of the Andes mountains to the southwest towards the Pacific ocean and from the east of the mountain range to the valleys it follows the Colorado River south towards Carmen de Patagones in the Atlantic Ocean. To the west, it includes the territory of Valdivia through Tierra del Fuego archipelago.

The name Patagonia comes from the word patagón used by Magellan in 1520 to describe the native people that his expedition thought to be giants. It is now believed the Patagons were actually Tehuelches with an average height of 180 cm (~5′11″) compared to the 155 cm (~5′1″) average for Europeans of the time.

The Argentine portion of Patagonia includes the provinces of Neuquén, Río Negro, Chubut and Santa Cruz, as well as the eastern portion of Tierra del Fuego archipelago and the southernmost department of Buenos Aires province: Patagones. The Argentine politico-economic Patagonic Region includes the Province of La Pampa.