GSS Reader Reg Coppicus from Canada thinks Isla San Felix might be “the crappiest posting ever”. Fortunately for us, he’s talking military posting – this remote island in the South Pacific, he says, is home to:

an airstrip, some sea birds and nothing else.

Come on Reg, you’re being unfair. Look – there’s plenty to keep the chaps of the Chilean Navy occupied here at the San Felix Naval Air Station, located on one of the attractively named Islas Desventuradas (Unfortunate Islands). As well as the 2km-long runway there are quite a few buildings, some roads, and best of all a tennis court, plus what looks to be some other kind of sports field¹ just to the north. Just as well, considering these rugged islands are some 900km off the coast of Chile and otherwise totally uninhabited.

Indeed, San Felix looks like a throbbing metropolis compared with tiny Malpelo Island, which belongs to Colombia although it is actually slightly closer (360km) to the coast of Panama. Malpelo appears to support just one building² – an army outpost established in 1986. Those long evenings must just fly by.

Because of the minimal human intrusion, Malpelo is an important marine reserve – the largest no-fishing zone in the tropical eastern Pacific. In 2006 it was named as a World Heritage Site by Unesco, which calls it “a ‘reservoir’ for sharks, giant grouper and billfish“. It is a popular destination with shark divers, who apparently find the prospect of immersing themselves with “aggregations of over 200 hammerhead sharks and over 1,000 silky sharks, whale sharks and tuna” appealing…

Read more about the Islas Desventuradas and Malpelo Island at Wikipedia.

Thanks to Reg Coppicus.

Locations: Chile, Colombia / Categories: Aircraft, Buildings, Islands, Stadiums and Sport

View in Google Earth

The water backs up behind the wall of ice, raising the level of the southern arm of the lake until the pressure becomes so great that the dam collapses. This process repeats in an unpredictable cycle, every four or five years on average, but sometimes much more or less. (The last rupture event, in July 2008, was captured on video.) Notice how the shoreline of the southern part of the lake has a margin of bare rock, indicating the fluctuating water level – unlike the northern part, which has vegetation almost down to the water’s edge.

Perito Moreno is one of 48 glaciers that descend from the 350km-long Southern Patagonian Ice Field, which is the third largest continental ice sheet in the world (after Antarctica and Greenland). Among them are the Upsala Glacier, which flows into the northern end of Lago Argentino. This glacier has shrunk markedly over the past few decades, and Greenpeace has used photos comparing its extent in 1928 and 2004 to highlight climate change.¹

While there is no high-res imagery of Perito Moreno (except for the topmost part), Google does have some stunning close-ups of the Upsala Glacier, showing jagged shadows, huge icebergs and walls of rock scoured clean by the ice, with a sharp line marking the former edge of the glacier. Your geography teacher would love it.

While you’re here, over on the Chilean side of the ice field, check out the Brüggen Glacier², the longest in the southern hemisphere – it’s impressive, even in low resolution, and parts of it have high res too!

Thanks to Cory Lueninghoener. There’s more info at (you guessed it) Wikipedia.

Locations: Argentina, Chile / Categories: Natural Landmarks, Shadows

View in Google Earth

While we’ve seen large type in every corner of the world, in this particular case the absolute enormity of the words is jaw dropping. The four words are in excess of 3.15 kilometres long!¹

The poem is the work of Chilean poet Raúl Zurita, a man who suffered directly at the hands of the military dictatorship that ruled Chile during the 70s and 80s. Zurita said that during Augusto Pinochet’s regime he “began to imagine writing poems in the sky, on the faces of cliffs, in the desert”.

In 1982 Zurita published part two of his “Anteparaiso” poetic trilogy, which he then had written in the skies above New York by five aeroplanes in 8 kilometre high letters. In the 90s, Zurita turned his attention to this bit of desert, where he had the sand bulldozed into these magnificent words.

Perhaps the most impressive thing about this exceptional land art is the attention to detail that has been lavished upon it. It’s obvious that the shapes of the letters themselves are exquisitely crafted – but zooming in closer reveals the huge effort that must have gone into the process.

Due to the nature of deserts, these words should have been swept away by the wind many years ago. However, it seems that the local village has taken stewardship of the poem, and sends the local children out every Sunday to maintain the shifting sands.

See our related posts on LUECKE, The Readymix Logo, Mundi Man and Marree Man for more enormous artworks.

Thanks to Frank Taylor at the ever-informative Google Earth Blog, and yipero at the newly renovated Keyhole Forums.

Locations: Chile / Categories: Deserts, Large Type

View in Google Earth

The Atacama Desert is a virtually rainless plateau in Chile, South America. Made up of salt basins, sand and lava flows, the 181,300 km² desert is more than 20 million years old, and as it only receives about 3mm of rain a year is considered to be one of the driest places on Earth. Areas such as the Valle de la Luna haven’t received a single drop of rain in hundreds of years.

Valle de la Luna (Wikipedia) shown bottom left of this image (Ground level photo)

This bizarre landscape isn’t completely devoid of life however. To the east of the Valle de la Luna lies the village of San Pedro de Atacama, which has developed in the middle of the desert thanks to an oasis. People have been living here for a very long time – the ruins at Aldea de Tulor date from 800 BC.¹

Aldea de Tulor (Ground level photo)

The Atacama Desert is incredibly rich in copper, and the two largest copper mines in the world, Chuquicamata and Escondida are both here. Escondida alone produced 1.483 million tons of copper in 2007 – 9.5% of the entire world’s output.

Chuquicamata (Wikipedia) and Escondida (Wikipedia) copper mines

Mining here hasn’t always been so successful however – the Atacama Desert is littered with the ruins of 170 old abandoned nitrate (or “saltpeter”) mining towns, all of which (bar one) were shut down after the Germans invented synthetic nitrate at the turn of the 20th century.

The most important of these abandoned mines is the Humberstone and Santa Laura Saltpeter Works, and it has actually been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Thanks to the extremely arid conditions, cloud cover is incredibly rare in the Atacama desert. Combined with the high elevation of the area, that makes it a perfect location for stargazing, which is why there are several observatories here, including at 2,635 metres the Paranal Observatory, that houses the utterly brilliantly named Very Large Telescope (Wikipedia).

Thanks to Bakan_Vargas, Bleij and Tom (and Chris Branagan too).

Locations: Chile / Categories: Buildings, Deserts, Natural Landmarks, Structures

View in Google Earth

Underneath it reads “100 años” (meaning “100 years”), as it was made to celebrate the company’s 100th anniversary, and I imagine there won’t be any competition for the title of world’s largest coke logo in the next hundred years…

I mean, the Coca-Cola Company wouldn’t ever dream of making a bigger one… right?

Thanks to hugolvagancia, Harald Norway and Adolfo.

Locations: Chile / Categories: Large Type

View in Google Earth

This absolutely immense pool is 1 kilometre long and covers eight hectares – that’s 80,000 square metres! Furthermore, it contains an incredible 250,000 cubic metres of water.

And yes, it’s right beside the beach, and no more than a stone’s throw… from the sea.

Thanks to Bene via nubricks.com

Locations: Chile / Categories: Watercraft

View in Google Earth

Located in the south eastern Pacific Ocean, almost four thousand kilometers from continental Chile, Easter Island – or locally Rapa Nui – is one of the world’s most isolated inhabited islands¹, as well as one of the world’s most fascinating archaeological sites.

Photo of Rano Raraku Moai from mappic.org

The human history of Easter Island probably began somewhere between AD 300 and 1200 when people from the islands west of here landed with the tools, animals and provisions to stay for good. Although only 171 km² in area, at the time Easter Island had extensive forests, and the volcanic craters held drinking water – which is an important feature on an island with no rivers.

Rano Kau volcano (Picture)

Somewhere between AD 1000 and 1500, the Rapanui began a period of frantic construction of enormous stone statues – the Moai, for which Easter Island is world famous today. These enigmatic figures represented the islander’s deified ancestors, and were mostly placed near the coast, with their backs to the sea.

Moai of Ahu Nau Nau, Anakena Beach (Picture)

Moai are hewn from the island’s volcanic rock², and the largest Moai erected was almost 10 metres high and weighed 75 tonnes; their production and transportation is considered a remarkable accomplishment.

Moai of Ahu Tongariki (Picture)

887 Moai have been identified to date, however only a quarter ever made it to one of the coastal Ahu platforms – nearly half of all Moai remain at a single site called Rano Raraku, the volcanic crater where 95% were originally carved. The landscape is littered with 397 Moai – some half-finished, some semi-submerged in the earth through erosion, and others never even detached from the rock.³

Rano Raraku crater, Rano Raraku Moai (Picture)

By the time explorers arrived here in the 18th Century, the forests of the island had completely disappeared. It’s unknown whether or not the Rapanui had used all the trees in the construction of the Moai, or if some other ecological factor was involved, but either way the islanders were now trapped – there was no longer any wood available for making seaworthy canoes.

After this things began to go rapidly downhill for the inhabitants of Easter Island. There followed a period of tribal wars, raids by Peruvian slavers, epidemics of European diseases, and the conversion of the entire island into a sheep farm. During this period much Rapa Nui culture was lost forever, nearly all of the Moai were deliberately toppled (probably by warring tribal factions), and by the late 19th century only 111 of the indigenous people remained alive.

Somehow, against all the odds, today there are several thousand descendants of the surviving 111 Rapanui living on Easter Island – which now has sustainable forestry and the longest runway in Polynesia (having been extended to function as an emergency landing place for the U.S. Space Shuttle). The Moai have returned too – many have been re-erected on their Ahus around the island and one has even been given new eyes.

Moai at Ahu Akivi, unusual in not being on the coast, and facing towards the sea (Picture)

Read more about Easter Island and Moai at Wikipedia.

Thanks to Josh, Adam, Reinhold and Didier.

Locations: Chile, Polynesia / Categories: Aircraft, Islands, Monuments, Natural Landmarks, Spacecraft

View in Google Earth

In the northern desert the Chiza geoglyphs were made by carefully arranging the dark stones on the light sand to create figures of humans, birds and animals. In contrast to the Nazca lines, of of these geoglyphs are on hillsides, and can therefore be seen from ground level – in fact a car has stopped by the road here to admire these ones.

Further south, we find the geoglyphs at Tiliviche – which is a huge drawing of a whole herd of Llamas being rounded up by a fat guy and a skinny guy (Llamas were used by the Incas as a system of transportation).

Moving further south again, we find the Pintados geoglyphs. Although these figures of men, beasts, birds and geometric shapes are comparitively small, there are around 400 individual geoglyphs here! Interestingly it seems that these were all made by clearing the dark rocks to create the image.

Finally, the most impressive geoglyph in Chile has got to be the totally brilliant Atacama Giant, which at 80 metres, claims to be the world’s largest prehistorical anthropomorphic figure (of course, if you’re a regular reader you’ll know to consider these “world’s largest” claims carefully…)

There’s other shapes and figures here too, but personally I think this “gigantic cat-looking-thing” is one of the best geoglyphs anywhere

Here’s some more info on the Atacama Giant, the Inca Empire, and um, Llamas.

Thanks to Mauricio Aguilar, Yannick Lemieux, Patrick and Juan Arancibia.

Locations: Chile / Categories: Deserts, Large Type, Structures

View in Google Earth