Icalma Lake

Icalma Lake
Icalma Lake
Coordinates	38°48′S 71°17′W / 38.800°S 71.283°W / -38.800; -71.283
Primary inflows	Huillinco and Icalma rivers
Primary outflows	Rukanuco River
Catchment area	150 km2 (58 sq mi)[1]
Basin countries	Chile
Max. length	9 kilometres (5.6 mi)
Max. width	2.5 kilometres (1.6 mi)
Surface area	9.8 square kilometres (2,400 acres)
Average depth	66 m (217 ft)[1]
Max. depth	135 m (443 ft)[1]
Water volume	.6 cubic kilometres (490,000 acre⋅ft)
Surface elevation	1,150 m (3,770 ft)[1]
References	[1]

Icalma Lake is a lake of glacial origin located in the Andes of the La Araucanía Region of Chile. A hamlet on the southern shore of the lake is also called Icalma. About 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) from the hamlet is Icalma Pass, 1,307 metres (4,288 ft) in elevation and on the border with Argentina. The pass is traversed by a road, unpaved in Chile in 2017 and sometimes impassable during the Southern Hemisphere winter due to heavy snows.^[2] Icalma Airport is located 9 kilometres (5.6 mi) northeast of the hamlet and some 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) from the border with Argentina.

Icalma Lake is connected to the Laguna Chica de Icalma (Little Lake of Icalma) by a short stream about 300 metres (980 ft) long. The two lakes together have a surface area of 11.7 square kilometres (2,900 acres).^[1] Icalma Lake drains northeastwards by way of a 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) long river named Rukanuco. Icalma Lake and nearby Galletué Lake are the sources of the Bio Bio River.^[1]

The most abundant species of fish in the lake is the brown trout. The lake also has a population of rainbow trout. Neither species is native to Chile.^[3]

The lake and village are in the ecoregion of the Valdivian Temperate Rain Forest. The monkey-puzzle tree (Araucaria araucana) locally called "pehuen" is the most distinctive of the tree species in the forest.^[4]

Under the Köppen climate classification, Icalma has an oceanic climate, designated Csb. Under the Trewartha climate classification the climate is Crlk: mild summers, cool winters, and humid.

• Llaima
• Sollipulli
• Bertrand, Sébastien; Charlet, François; Chapron, Emmanuel; Fagel, Nathalie; De Batist, Marc (2008). "Reconstruction of the Holocene seismotectonic activity of the Southern Andes from seismites recorded in Lago Icalma, Chile, 39°S" (PDF). Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 259 (2–3): 301–322. doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2007.10.013. hdl:1912/2176.