page_title: Pali-Aike volcanic field
section_title: Climate and vegetation
hierarchical_section_title: Pali-Aike volcanic field / Climate and vegetation
caption_attribution_description: Español: Parque Nacional Pali Aike, Región de Magallanes y Antártica Chilena, Chile
context_page_description: Pali-Aike volcanic field is a volcanic field in Argentina which straddles the border with Chile. It is part of a province of back-arc volcanoes in Patagonia, which formed from processes involving the collision of the Chile Rise with the Peru–Chile Trench. It lies farther east than the Austral Volcanic Zone, the volcanic arc which forms the Andean Volcanic Belt at this latitude.
  Pali-Aike formed over a Jurassic basin starting from the late Miocene as a consequence of regional tectonic events and local extension. It consists of an older plateau basalt formation and younger volcanic centres in the form of pyroclastic cones, scoria cones, maars and associated lava flows. These vents often form local alignments along lineaments or faults. The volcanic field is noteworthy for the presence of large amounts of xenoliths in its rocks and because the maar Laguna Potrok Aike is located here. The field was active starting from 3.78 million years ago. The latest eruptions occurred during the Holocene, as indicated by the burial of archeological artifacts; Laguna Azul maar formed about 3,400 years before present.
context_section_description: The climate in the region is windy and cold, with mild winters owing to the oceanic influence, and dry, bordering on semi-desert with precipitation ranging between 300–150 millimetres per year (11.8–5.9 in/year). These patterns are owing to the closeness of Antarctica, the cold Humboldt current and Falklands current ocean currents and the rain shadow of the Andes. Some maars and craters in Pali-Aike have been used for paleoclimatological research, in the form of sediment core analysis, such as Laguna Azul, Laguna Potrok Aike and Magallanes Maar.
  The regional vegetation is represented by grassland and shrubs. Dominant species are Festuca gracillima in the drier east and Festuca pallescens in the wetter west. The highly permeable basalts intercept precipitation, forming active aquifers that feed into wetlands. The vegetation is not free of human influences, in the form of invasive European weeds and sheep farming.
caption: Landscape of Pali-Aike
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