The landscape of the park is dominated by the Paine massif, which is an eastern spur of the
Andes located on the east side of the
Grey Glacier, rising dramatically above the
Patagonian steppe. Small valleys separate the granite spires and mountains of the massif. These are:
Valle del Francés (French Valley),
Valle Bader,
Valle Ascencio, and
Valle del Silencio (Silence Valley). The head of French Valley is a
cirque formed by tall cliffs. The colossal walls of
Cerro Cota 2000 and
Cerro Catedral punctuate the western region of the Valley. Cerro Cota 2000 is named for its elevation; its highest
contour line is about . Cerro Catedral is named so because its east face resembles a
cathedral's facade. To the north stands the granite
arête called
Aleta de Tiburón (
English: Shark's Fin). To the east, from north to south, lie the peaks
Fortaleza (Fortress),
La Espada (The Sword),
La Hoja (The Blade),
La Máscara (The Mummer),
Cuerno Norte (North Horn), and
Cuerno Principal (Main Horn). In the Valley of Silence, the gigantic granite walls of
Cerro Fortaleza and
Cerro Escudo (Shield Mountain) stand face to face with the western faces of the
Torres del Paine. Ascencio Valley is the normal route to reach the Torres del Paine lookout, which is located at the bank of a milky green
tarn. The highest mountain of the group is
Paine Grande, whose height was measured in 2011 using
GPS and found to be . The
Southern Patagonian Ice Field mantles a great portion of the park. Glaciers include the
Dickson, the Grey, and the
Tyndall. Among the lakes are the
Dickson Lake,
Nordenskjöld Lake,
Lake Pehoé,
Grey Lake,
Sarmiento Lake, and
Del Toro Lake. Only a portion of the latter is within the borders of the park. All are vividly colored, most due to
rock flour suspended in their waters. The main river flowing through the park is
Paine River. Most of the rivers and lakes of the park drain into
Última Esperanza Sound via
Serrano River.
Geology Much of the geology of the Paine Massif area consists of
Cretaceous sedimentary rocks that have been intruded by a
Miocene-aged
laccolith.
Orogenic and
erosional processes have shaped the present-day topography, and glacial erosion is mainly responsible for the sculpturing of the massif in the last tens of thousands of years. A good example of the latter is the
Cuernos del Paine, whose central bands of exposed
granite contrast strongly with the dark aspect of their tops, which are remnants of a heavily eroded sedimentary stratum. In the case of
Las Torres, what once was their overlying sedimentary rock layer has been completely eroded, leaving behind the more resistant granite. from the Lago del Toro in the morning In June 2014, scientists uncovered
fossils of at least 46 ancient
specimens of nearly complete
skeletons of dolphin-like creatures called
Ichthyosaurs which lived between 245 and 90 million years ago. The finding came after melting glaciers revealed new rock faces beneath. During the
last glacial period glacier extent in the area
peaked about 48,000 years ago, much earlier than for the more northern locations of
Chiloé and
Llanquihue. During the late Pleistocene and early Holocene a series of
proglacial lakes existed in the Torres del Paine area. The last of these lakes, the
Great Tehuelche Paleolake, covered what is now
Sarmiento and
Del Toro lakes plus a large area to east making Cazador Range a peninsula. The Great Tehuelche Paleolake vanished after being drained about 7,113
years before present. Ancient
lake terraces marks the level attained by these lakes albeit great uncertainty exists regarding their evolution. ==Biology==