Lake Viedma

Where is Lake Viedma?

Countries on its shores: Argentina.

Middle of the lake: 49.58° S, 72.50° W

The story behind it

Lake Viedma lies in a long valley that was shaped by glacier ice. It is about 80 km long but only about 15 km wide, and in places it may be around 900 metres deep. Its surface lies about 252 metres above sea level. Most of its water comes from the Viedma Glacier, which is about 5 km wide where it ends. The glacier water gives the lake its turquoise colour. From the lake, the water runs down the La Leona River into Lake Argentino and then on through the Santa Cruz River to the Atlantic Ocean. Close to the lake lies the town of El Chaltén, at the foot of the famous mountain Fitz Roy, with the peak of Cerro Torre nearby. The lake is named after the Spanish explorer Antonio de Viedma, who reached its shores in the 1780s. It is the second-largest lake that lies completely inside Argentina.

Find it on the globe

Lake Viedma is there as a small blue dot with its name, right on the water. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.

It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.