INTRODUCTION
The southern Andes of South America consists of Patagonia and an achipelago of
remote islands the southernmost of which form Tierra del Fuego & Cape Horn. The region is
visually spectacular, remote, sublime, untrodden, and contains a rich geologic and cultural history. Charles
Darwin first described the geology of Tierra del Fuego aboard the H.M.S. Beagle in 1831-1836. Since then numerous
Earth scientists have come to the 'uttermost part of the Earth' to study features including active faulting and oroclinal bending, exhumation of mid-crustal metamorphic rocks, and the construction and destruction of a Cretaceous maginal basins. Since 1996 we have been conducting various field studies with the goal of understanding the 4-D evolution of a marginal basin that developed along the southern coasts of Gondwanaland during the Jurassic and early Cretaceous.
This web site offers a glimpse of some of our on-going studies as well as a link to various geological and cultural resources associated with Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. Click on Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego to begin, or cut to one of the links below for more information.

Tectonic Evolution of a Cretaceous Back-Arc Basin • The Tortuga Ophiolite • Tierra del Fuego: A Gallery of Images

Cultural Influences on the Landscape

Collaborators • Acknowledgements • Suggested References

Aaron Yoshinobu's Homepage • Geosciences Home