Santa Cruz is a province in southern Argentina. The province, largely comprised of arid steppe and grasslands, is bordered by the Andes to the west and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. In the 1830s, during the HMS Beagle's second voyage to Patagonia, naturalist Charles Darwin and Captain Robert Fitz Roy landed at the mouth of the province's namesake river, Río Santa Cruz and chartered the river westward.
Population
~275,000
Capital
Río Gallegos
Area
~245,000 km²
Lago Viedma, Río La Leona & Lago Argentino
Lago Viedma is a large lake near Parque Nacional Los Glaciares. It is fed by melting glacial ice from the Southern Patagonian Ice Field's Glaciar Viedma, which sits at the lake's west edge. The glacier is within an area of the Chile-Argentina border that, as of 2017, still remains undefined. Water from Lago Viedma cuts southward through the pampas via Río La Leona, a river named by legendary 19th-century Argentine explorer Perito Moreno after he was attacked by a female puma (lioness) not far from its shore. Río La Leona empties into Lago Argentino, Argentina's largest lake. In addition to Río La Leona, Lago Argentino is fed by melting glacial ice from the Southern Patagonian Ice Field's massive Glaciar Perito Moreno, which sits at the lake's southwest edge. Waters from Lake Argentino flow east into the Atlantic Ocean through via Río Santa Cruz.
Río Santa Cruz
Río Santa Cruz begins at the east edge of Lago Argentino, snaking its way ~385 km across the arid Patagonian steppe before emptying into the Atlantic Ocean near the small town of Puerto Santa Cruz. In 2013, a consortium led by China's Gezhouba Group was awarded a multi-billion dollar contract to build two dams on Río Santa Cruz. Both dams are currently under construction.
The La Barrancosa Dam (aka Jorge Cepernic Dam) is located ~115 km downstream from Río Santa Cruz's birthplace at the east edge of Lago Argentino. This dam is named after Jorge Cepernic, the Governor of Santa Cruz between 1973-1974 who was thrown in jail during his tenure for allowing the filming of Rebellion in Patagonia (1974). The film was based on a politically controversial series of events, that took place in Santa Cruz in the 1920s, where thousands of rural workers were shot and killed by military forces in a worker's strike.
The Condor Cliff Dam (aka Néstor Kirchner Dam) is located ~180 km upstream from the river's mouth, near the small town of Puerto Santa Cruz. This dam is named after Néstor Kirchner who was the Governor of Santa Cruz from 1991-2003 and then served as the President of Argentina from 2003-2007. In 2007, he married President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, but died three years later in 2010.
Monte Fitz Roy
Monte Fitz Roy is the jagged granite mountain that towers above El Chaltén in the north of Parque Nacional Los Glaciares. The mountain was first summited in 1952 and is considered to be one of the most technically-difficult mountains to climb. It is named after Robert FitzRoy, captain of the HMS Beagle. During its first voyage to Patagonia, the ship's (initial) captain, Pringle Stokes, suffered an extreme bout of depression and committed suicide. He was replaced by 23-year old Robert FitzRoy, who proved to be an able commander and meticulous surveyor. When one of his whale ships was stolen by a group of indigenous Yaghan, Captain FitzRoy proceeded to take four Yaghan hostage. In 1830, he returned with them to England, and the British public became so fascinated with the Yaghan people that they quickly became celebrities; even meeting King William IV. Captain FitzRoy made arrangements to return the Yaghan to southern Patagonia, where he hoped to continue his surveying efforts. He sought scientific company, and was joined by 23-year old naturalist, Charles Darwin, who self-funded the voyage. Darwin credited this voyage with helping him construct his theory of evolution. He kept a diary of his experiences aboard the Beagle and, when published, The Voyage of the Beagle, became a best-selling book.
Southern Patagonian Ice Field
Earth's second-largest contiguous extrapolar ice field; known locally as El Campo de Hielo Sur. It's the larger of two remnants of the Patagonian Ice Sheet, which once covered all of Chilean Patagonia (and some of Argentine Patagonia) during the last ice age. A ~50 km stretch of the Chile-Argentina border within the ice field remains undefined (including the Viedma and Upsala glaciers). The Chilean portion of the ice field is home to the O'Higgins, Brüggen (Pío XI), Tyndall (Geike) and Grey glaciers.
