Chile

Chile is an extremely elongated country on the Pacific coast of South America. The country is basically the land between the Andes Mountains and the ocean. Chile is about 4200 km (2600 miles) long, but an average of only about 160 km (100 miles) wide. The largest population center and capital city of Santiago is about in the middle of the north-south length of the country. Valparaiso is roughly adjacent to Santiago on the coast.

If you live in a northern hemisphere temperate climate zone, you may have noticed seeing "Product of Chile" when you buy produce in the winter. Chile has taken advantage of it's location in the southern hemisphere, which means that it's agricultural growing season is opposite of countries in the northern hemisphere, where the majority of the world's people live.

Chile is rich in minerals and is also known for mining, which can sometimes be dangerous. In 2010, people around the world followed the brilliant rescue of 33 miners that had been trapped far underground by a collapse for 69 days. Holes had been drilled by which food and supplies could be lowered to the miners, who communicated by written notes. The miners were brought to the surface one-by-one in a specially-constructed capsule. It was a very delicate operation because any drilling might cause a further collapse.

Chile is also prone to earthquakes, as the widening of the Atlantic seafloor by magma emergence along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge pushes South America against the Pacific Tectonic Plate. It is actually a subduction zone where one plate slips under another, which causes some of the most powerful quakes of all. Earlier in 2010, there was one of the most powerful earthquakes ever recorded off the coast of Chile. It caused a tsunami and massive blackout and over 500 people were killed. The quake was so powerful that it caused a measurable shift in the earth's rotation but, of course, caused nowhere near the destruction of the earthquake in Haiti the month before.

Santiago dates from the Sixteenth Century and is one of Spain's original "conquistador cities". that were started at the time South America was settled by Spain. The following scenes begin in the Plaza de Armas, or central square, of Santiago. As in so many cities of Latin America, there is the country's main cathedral facing the central square in the capital city, and also other government buildings. But Santiago's main cathedral is not as old as the city itself. The former judicial building is now the national museum. If you see La Moneda, in Constitution Plaza, that is where the President of Chile lives.

There are multiple scenes following. To see the scenes, after the first one, you must first click the up arrow, ^, before you can move on to the next scene by clicking the right or forward arrow, >. After clicking the up arrow, you can then hide the previews of successive scenes, if you wish.

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This street is Avenue Libertador Bernardo O'Higgins, named for Chile's independence leader. Yes, that is an Irish name. His father was Irish. Isn't this a coincidence, Eamon de Valera, the founder of modern Ireland, has a Spanish name.

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The following scenes begin on Santa Lucia Hill, in the middle of Santiago.

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Here is the modern development known as the Costanera Center. The Grand Torre is the tallest building in South America.

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The city of Valparaiso is less than 100 km from Santiago and is on the coast. There has been many immigrants from Europe arriving in Valparaiso, and it was a great port city before the opening of the Panama Canal. The following scenes of Valparaiso begin in Plaza Sotomayor.

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This is the northern city of Antofagasta, which is over 1,000 km north of Santiago and Valparaiso, and was once part of Bolivia. This is where the "War of the Pacific" began, in the late Nineteenth Century, which resulted in Chile gaining the valuable area which is now known to be rich in copper, and in Bolivia losing it's seacoast. The war began over Bolivia raising taxes on Chilean investments, after Chile claimed it signed a treaty agreeing not to. Bolivia had a secret treaty with Peru, which was also brought into the war. Although Bolivia is allowed to use the port, as Chile agreed to, the two countries still do not have formal diplomatic relations. Although Bolivia has since been landlocked, it has not disbanded it's navy.

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Chile is in the southern hemisphere. It also has high mountains and the driest desert in the world. What all of that adds up to is astronomy.

Since the vast majority of the earth's population live in the northern hemisphere, the northern stars have been much-more studied than the southern stars. Astronomical observatories need very special locations. To get the best vision of outer space, the observatory should be as high as possible and in an area that is as dry as possible. It is also necessary to be far away from the bright lights of a city, which will drown out faint stars.

The best place is thus on a mountain in the desert, and it's even better if it's in the southern hemisphere. Although telescopes are now moving above the atmosphere altogether, with the Hubble Space Telescope  that has been a fantastic success far exceeding anyone's expectations and the James Webb Telescope which is being built to succeed it, Chile has made itself into probably the world center of ground-based astronomy.

We saw the Mount Wilson Observatory on the blog of Travel Photos Of North America. So much of what we know about the universe was discovered there, along with the observatory at Mount Palomar not too far away. But the usefulness of the Mount Wilson Observatory has long since been compromised by the bright lights of nearby Los Angeles.

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There are actually many astronomical observatories in Chile today. The best-known is probably the one at Cerro Tololo. Despite the endless fascination with outer space, have you ever though about how difficult it must be to make a living at it? Not only do you have to work all night on a mountain out in the desert, but there should not be any heating because the resulting convection currents could distort the vision of the telescope.

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