The southernmost range of the Andes Cordillera, mantled by an ice field, whose slopes drop precipitously to the sea, is located in the southwestern portion of Grand Island in Fire Land (Tierra del Fuego), entirely in what is now Chilean territory. The range includes the highest mountains in Tierra del Fuego, with elevations reaching over 2,000m/6,600ft. The ice field covers an area greater than 2,300sq km/890sq mi.
The Cordillera is a unit of rocks composed of metamorphic, igneous or sedimentary ones and is analogous to the Eastern Andes geological complex albeith both complexes lie hundreds of kilometers from each other.
The range which extends in a West-East direction, was given the Darwin name to celebrate Charles Darwin's 25th birthday on 12 February 1834, and is the most important centerpiece feature of the Protected area (National Park) created on land that was formerly part of a forest reserve. Several tidewater glaciers and steep fjords are found there. The region was visited by Charles Darwin, who encountered its native Fuegian peoples in Murray Channel (salinity is approximately 32/1,000 parts).
Fuegian peoples include the Selk'Nam, Haush, Manek'enk, and Yaghan, the latter settling the lands along the channel approximately 10,000 years ago. There are notable archaeological sites such as Bahia Wulaii on Navarro Island. Ancient people created fish traps in small inlets of the bay. The stone work for those traps has survived and used by the Yahgans into the 19th century. They are the most southern people in the history of the World. They created settlements in the coastal terraces on Navarino Island, building circular huts in the middle of pits containing waste products. They lived largely by taking fish and shellfish from the waters. The island was little disturbed by outsiders until late in the 19th century.
The Beagle Channel is a naturally formed, narrow navigable waterway (strait) in the Tierra del Fuego cluster of Islands on the extreme Souther ti of South America partly in Chile and partly in Argentina. The Channel separates the larger Grand Island from various smaller ones. It is about 240km/150mi long and about 5km/3mi wide at its narrowest point.
The Beagle Channel, the Straits of Magellan to the North, and the open-ocean Drake Passage to the South, are the 3 navigable passages around South America between Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. However, most commercial shipping uses the open-ocean Drake Passage.
