The dynamic plate tectonic setting of Tierra del Fuego. Lago Fagnano straddles a major strand of the Magellanes-Fagnano Fault System, which demarcates the transition from Andean compression, to left lateral strike slip faulting relative to Antarctica.

LandSat 7 Imagery will be used in the preparation of the students and teachers. Georeferenced field data will be compiled on a LandSat base map via ArcGIS, upon return from the field.

Students will collect water samples from various locations in and around Lago Fagnano for analysis.


This collaborative effort involving The University of Texas at Austin, Stanford University, and international researchers couples an investigation of the paleoclimate in southern South America with a study of the regional tectonics. Lago Fagnano, the world’s southernmost, subaerial lake, is uniquely situated to provide important information addressing both these topics. Its position along a major strike slip plate boundary has led to its interpretation as a pull-apart basin. Its basin has also been sculpted by glacial processes related to dramatic shifts in the Earth’s climate through time.

Lago Fagnano’s high latitude makes it an ideal recorder of climate change driven by ocean-atmosphere interactions associated with Southern Ocean dynamics. This information is crucial to the reconstruction of the glaciation/deglaciation history of Tierra del Fuego.

Geophysical methods will lay the groundwork for paleoclimate studies. Using multibeam bathymetry and backscatter profiling, the geometry of the modern lake bed will be mapped. Upon completion of this stage, high resolution, multi-channel seismic reflection data acquisition will enable the profiling of the sediment column to a depth of 10-15 meters.

These marine geophysical techniques will provide important information addressing the link between the Lago Fagnano basin morphology and the strike-slip fault system on which it rests. Also, these data will lay the groundwork for the acquisition of long cores for paleoclimate by ensuring the undisturbed nature of the sediment column.

The sediment cores taken from the lake basin will serve as “tape recorders” of the ocean-atmospheric processes occurring since the Last Glacial Maximum, and the westward retreat of alpine glacial lobes across Tierra del Fuego. Isotopes, trace fossils and chemistry will be integrated to faciliatate a reconstruction of climate in southern South America through time.

In addition to the stated goals of the funded proposal, the Boerne High School teachers and students have designed a series of field-based research questions to address.

  • Using LandSat7 imagery integrated into a geographic information system (GIS), students and teachers at Boerne will work to remotely sense geologic features (faults, glacial deposits, tectonic sag basins). Once we are in the field, part of the time will be devoted to groundtruthing aspects of this map.
  • Students will collecting water samples from unique sources (glacial meltwater, lake, atmosphere) to assess the isotopic variability and relative contribution of source waters to Lago Fagnano.
  • Students and Teachers will keep a daily field journal, noting the flora, fauna, and the geologic observations made during the course of each day.
  • Most importantly, the students and teachers will gain relevant field experience (making observations and measurements, recording data and interpreting results in the field, and back in Texas) in a very scientifically interesting part of the world.