1. Unique natural environment:
Patagonia Plateau starts from the Colorado River at 36 south latitude in the north, reaches Tierra del Fuego in the south, the Andes in the west and the Atlantic Ocean in the east. It covers an area of 786938km2, accounting for 28% of the national territory, including Neuquen, Rionegro, Chubut, Santa Cruz and Tierra del Fuego. This is a place with a unique natural geographical environment.
Patagonia borders the Andes in the west, with snow peaks and volcanoes, glaciers and dense forests, as well as a large number of national parks and nature reserves. Perito Moreno Glacier is located in Glacier National Park in the southwest of Santa Cruz Province, with a height of 3,600 meters and a stretch of 200 kilometers. The ice layer keeps moving and breaking, and the roaring mountain wind fills the park with thunderous noise. Laning National Park in northwest neuquen province has 2 1 lake and an extinct volcano. There are also ancient virgin forests preserved here, with dense trees, lush branches and leaves, vigorous and straight. Patagonia also has magnificent natural landscapes and precious animals, such as llamas, vultures, leopards, sea lions, walruses and penguins. Blanca Marsh Nature Reserve in neuquen province, Perretto Moreno National Park in Santa Cruz Province, Tierra del Fuego National Park Reserve and Valdez Peninsula National Marine Park in chubut province.
Eastern Patagonia is a desert and semi-desert plateau, which is dominated by vast platforms. From west to east, it inclines in steps, while in the east, it approaches the Atlantic Ocean with steep cliffs. Due to the influence of ancient glaciers and modern arid climate, there are many glacial deposits in moraine hills and periglacial lakes and various wind erosion and aeolian landforms on the surface.
Patagonia is known as the "terroir plateau" because of its harsh climatic conditions. Affected by the small size of the mainland, the leeward position of the Juan Andes and the cold current of the coastal Falkland, the desert reaches the east coast directly, but its continental characteristics are not very strong. There is no extreme low temperature and high temperature in winter and summer. The average temperature in July is 0℃ ~ 4℃, and the average monthly temperature is 65438 02℃ ~ 20℃. Precipitation is scarce, and the annual average precipitation in the whole region is less than 300mm, and it decreases from west to east. The wind is strong, the speed is often above 1 10km, and the sandstorm continues.
Patagonia has a unique hydrological situation. Although the desert is widely distributed, the inflow area is narrow, and the inflow area is limited to the narrow area between the Negro River and the Chubut River. Rivers in other areas have become transit outflow rivers due to the supply of snow in mountains or meltwater from glacial lakes. However, due to the limitation of arid climate, only the Colorado River, Negro River and Chubut River are rich in shipping, irrigation and power generation resources. Become a valley plain base for Patagonia to develop agriculture, animal husbandry and forestry.
There are few lakes in South America, but there are more than 300 glacial lakes and moraine lakes on the east side of the eastern foot of the Andes in Patagonia, which constitute the only important lake group in South America.
2. Rich mineral resources:
The special structural foundation and complex geological conditions have created a good resource environment and rich mineral resources in Patagonia. Patagonia is the most promising region in Argentina.
Patagonia has large oil reserves and is widely distributed. In recent years, more and more abundant oil and natural gas resources have been discovered on the coastal continental shelf. At present, Patagonia with Rivadavia as the center has become the largest oil base in Argentina, accounting for more than 60% of the country's total oil output.
Rio Authour Bio at the southern tip of Patagonia is the largest coal mining area in Argentina, which supplies almost all the industrial coal in Argentina. In addition, the plateau mountains of Tierra del Fuego, San Juan and Patagonia are also rich in peat.
There are abundant uranium deposits in central Patagonia, and three uranium mines, including Los Aldobes uranium mine in chubut province, have been discovered and built. Chubut province is also rich in bauxite, and there is a large iron ore mine in Lund, Sherlag, Rionegro Province. In addition, Patagonia also has minerals such as molybdenum, copper, zinc, lead, lime, refractory clay and clay.
3. Start the national economy:
Animal husbandry and fruit and vegetable production in Patagonia are relatively developed, and the basic industries have begun to take shape from scratch. It is becoming an important economic growth point in Argentina.
Patagonia is the largest sheep-raising area in Argentina, with more rain and abundant pasture in summer. Mainly raising wool and meat dual-purpose sheep and wool merino sheep, the number of sheep raised and wool output account for about 50% of the country. Wool is produced in Valdez Peninsula and Ness, camaro, and enjoys a high reputation in the international market. In recent years, the experiments of water diversion irrigation, alfalfa planting and cattle raising in Colorado River and Negro River Canyon have been successful, and the shearing industry and meat refrigeration processing industry have also developed.
Neuquen and Rionegro Gorge are one of the Argentine fruit and vegetable production bases with abundant sunshine and convenient irrigation. Fruits include grapes, peaches, plums, apricots and cherries. Most fruits are processed and exported to Brazil. Grapes are used to make wine, and the output ranks third in the world.
Patagonia is rich in forestry resources. There are not only virgin forests with a thousand years old, but also artificial forests in recent years, which can provide 100000m3 of log boards every year.
Patagonia has a long coastline and rich fishery resources. 40% of Argentina's fishery resources are concentrated in Patagonia offshore, where there are precious cod, salmon, trout and sperm whales. Aquatic fishing and processing have also developed to some extent.
Patagonia has a poor industrial base, except for minerals, oil, natural gas and petrochemical industries, there are only some industries such as meat refrigeration and food processing. But this is a field that anthropologists and naturalists yearn for and conduct scientific investigations; Now it has become the base of Antarctic exploration and one of the centers of nuclear energy research.
4. Bright development prospects
Patagonia is a developing region. Since the 1940s, successive Argentine governments have attached great importance to the colonization and development of Patagonia, and formulated and implemented policies to encourage the migration of population, capital, technology, materials and equipment that are conducive to the development of this region, hoping to turn it into a developed area of animal husbandry, agriculture and industry, and then become a new growth point to promote the development of the entire national economy.
These principles and policies to encourage development mainly include: first, formulating preferential conditions to attract mainland residents and immigrants to settle and develop here. The second is to encourage industrial development in this area and stipulate that newly-built industrial and mining enterprises shall be exempted from value-added tax from the date of production 10. The third is to encourage private capital at home and abroad to explore and develop oil and gas. Fourth, vigorously develop Patagonia's tourism and scientific research. The implementation of these policies has effectively promoted the development of Patagonia and opened up broad development prospects for it.