The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Chilean Archipelago

the general name of a longitudinal group of islands that includes several large islands, notably Chiloé, Wellington, and Santa Inés, dozens of smaller islands, and several thousand islets off the coast of southern Chile. The islands are continental in origin, chiefly segments of the Coastal Cordillera of the Andes, reach a maximum elevation of 1,300 m, and show strong traces of glacial action. With the exception of Chiloé, the islands are very sparsely settled. Dense evergreen and deciduous forests cover the islands, and the main economic activities are fishing and forestry.

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Some of the earth's finest old-growth forests are found in southern Chile, where they blanket steep coastal mountains and the countless islands of the Chilean archipelago. Comparable to the great ancient forests of North America's Pacific coast, the Valdivian, North Patagonian and Magallanes forests of Chile are similarly threatened by multinational timber operations.

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