Glacial lake · Chile · Argentina
O'Higgins/San Martín Lake
Lake in Argentina
- Area
- 1,010km²
- Max depth
- 836m
- Average depth
- 68m
- Elevation
- 252m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 780km
- Volume
- 68.7km³
O'Higgins/San Martín Lake is a glacial lake in Chile. It covers 1,010 km². On average it is 68 m deep, and 836 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 252 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is O'Higgins/San Martín Lake?
The water is warmest in February, around 10 °C at the surface, and coldest in August, around 5 °C. Even at its warmest, the surface stays below 17 °C on average: this is cold water.
It does not normally freeze in winter.
On the shore, afternoons reach 14 °C on average in February and 0 °C in July. The driest month is September (22 mm of rain), the wettest May (50 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (159 readings). Shallow bays and beaches are often warmer.
From above
The whole lake from space
Month by month
The year at the lake, month by month
Not a forecast: these are averages over many years. Water is the 2013–2021 average; air, rain, sun and wind are the 1991–2020 average.
Water: 2013–2021 averageClimate: 1991–2020 average
| Month | Water°C | Water high°C | Air high°C | Air low°C | Rainmm | Rainy daysdays | Sunh/day | Windkm/h |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 10 | 10 | 14 | 4 | 29 | 6 | 6.4 | 28 |
| February | 10 | 10 | 14 | 4 | 27 | 6 | 6.0 | 25 |
| March | 10 | 10 | 11 | 2 | 32 | 7 | 4.6 | 24 |
| April | 9 | 10 | 8 | 0 | 37 | 8 | 3.7 | 23 |
| May | 8 | 9 | 4 | -2 | 50 | 10 | 3.0 | 19 |
| June | 7 | 7 | 0 | -6 | 44 | 9 | 2.1 | 19 |
| July | 6 | 6 | 0 | -7 | 35 | 9 | 2.8 | 18 |
| August | 5 | 6 | 2 | -5 | 37 | 8 | 4.2 | 20 |
| September | 5 | 6 | 5 | -2 | 22 | 5 | 4.9 | 22 |
| October | 6 | 7 | 8 | 0 | 33 | 7 | 5.8 | 25 |
| November | 7 | 8 | 10 | 1 | 33 | 7 | 6.1 | 28 |
| December | 9 | 9 | 12 | 3 | 34 | 8 | 6.3 | 28 |
Water: LakeTEMP (Landsat 8, 2013–2021). Air, rain, sun and wind: NASA POWER, 1991–2020 averages. A rainy day has at least 1 mm of rain. Sunshine hours are derived from measured solar radiation.
Size & depth
How big, how deep
- On average, water stays in the lake for about 15 years before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 12,895 km² of land.
- About 148 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
- Its shoreline is 6.9 times longer than a circle of the same area: plenty of bays and inlets.
Around the shore
What's around O'Higgins/San Martín Lake
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- —beaches and swimming spots
- 2campsites
Camping Ventisquero Chico
- —boat hire and water-sport clubs
- 1marinas and slipways
- 2ferry piers
Sofanor Mancilla, Bahia Bahamondez
- 1viewpoints
Plaza Mirador Ventisquero Mosco
- 3hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Cabanas, Parador El Cóndor, Refugio La Nana
- —fishing spots
- —restaurants and cafés
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: El Calafate - Commander Armando Tola International Airport (FTE), 128 km in a straight line.
Car hire at FTE airport (El Calafate)Discover Cars · Affiliate linkOpenStreetMap is built by volunteers: when a number is low, it may just mean nobody has mapped it yet.
Recent years
How each month compared
Afternoon high on the shore. The first row is the reference, the 1991–2020 average in °C; the years below show the difference from it: warmer in orange, cooler in blue.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1991–2020 average | 13.5 | 13.9 | 11.0 | 7.6 | 3.6 | 0.4 | 0.0 | 1.8 | 5.0 | 7.8 | 10.1 | 12.3 |
| 2020 | −0.3 | +0.2 | +2.1 | +1.1 | +1.6 | −1.0 | −3.2 | −0.3 | −0.3 | +0.2 | +1.8 | +0.2 |
| 2021 | −0.1 | +3.0 | +1.5 | +1.9 | +0.8 | +0.7 | +2.2 | +1.2 | +1.2 | +0.5 | +1.4 | +3.2 |
| 2022 | +0.6 | +0.6 | −0.7 | −1.2 | −0.1 | +0.2 | −1.6 | ±0.0 | +0.5 | +0.2 | +2.9 | +0.3 |
| 2023 | +1.8 | −1.1 | −1.8 | −0.2 | +0.6 | −0.3 | −1.5 | +0.6 | −1.7 | −0.3 | −1.1 | +1.6 |
| 2024 | +1.4 | +1.0 | −1.3 | −1.1 | −2.8 | −2.3 | +0.2 | +0.9 | −1.3 | +1.2 | +0.5 | +1.9 |
| 2025 | +0.7 | −2.4 | −0.3 | +0.3 | −0.4 | −0.4 | +0.5 | +1.0 | +1.1 | −1.0 | +2.8 | −0.4 |
+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual
Nearby
More lakes nearby
Argentina1,193 km² · 64 km away11°maxArgentino LakeArgentina1,320 km² · 124 km away10°maxCardiel LakeArgentina349 km² · 82 km away13°maxCochrane/Pueyrredón LakeChile299 km² · 202 km away12°maxDel Toro LakeChile190 km² · 234 km away9°maxLake General Carrera/Buenos AiresChile1,764 km² · 302 km away13°maxAbout these numbers
| Outline, area, depth, volume | HydroLAKES v1.0 (Messager et al. 2016) · CC BY 4.0 |
|---|---|
| Water temperature and ice | LakeTEMP v1 (Korver et al. 2024), Landsat 8 2013–2021 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Air, rain, sun, wind | NASA POWER, 1991–2020 · public domain |
| Names and description | Wikidata (Q2005708) · CC0 |
| Around the shore | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
Every figure is an average or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
