Tierra del Fuego, Antarctica and South Atlantic Islands

• Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego (1960)

Source: Argentine National Parks Administration (SIB-APN).

Its full official name is the Province of Tierra del Fuego, Antarctica and the South Atlantic Islands, and it is the only Argentine jurisdiction that extends over two continents. It comprises:

• Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego · its Argentine sector, shared with Chile, and Isla de los Estados
• Malvinas Islands · under British occupation since 1833 and claimed by Argentina
• Georgias del Sur and Sandwich del Sur Islands · in 2024 the provincial government proposed to the National Geographic Institute that they be called the San Pedro Islands, the name given to them by Spain in 1756, and the Esquivel Islands, in honor of the Teniente Esquivel refuge, as an act of sovereign claim against British toponymy
• Argentine Antarctica · the sector between meridians 25° and 74° west, south of parallel 60° south, whose claim was preserved by the Antarctic Treaty

Sources: Law 23,775 · Constitution of the Province of Tierra del Fuego · Government of Tierra del Fuego, Secretariat of Malvinas, Antarctica and South Atlantic Islands · National Geographic Institute.

• Beagle Channel · islands of sea lions and cormorants, penguin colonies and the Les Éclaireurs lighthouse, the symbol of Ushuaia; its cold waters yield king crab, Patagonian toothfish and red octopus
• Martial Glacier · above the city, a viewpoint over the Beagle and a mountain trail
• Tierra del Fuego National Park · forests, bays and Lapataia Bay, where National Route 3 ends
• Cerro Castor · the southernmost ski resort in the world, next to the cross-country skiing valleys of Tierra Mayor
• Port of Ushuaia · the main gateway to Antarctica for cruise ships from all over the world

Sources: Argentine National Parks Administration · Instituto Fueguino de Turismo.

From 1902 to 1947 the Prison for Repeat Offenders operated in Ushuaia, the southernmost prison in the world, around which the city grew. The prisoners cut firewood in the forests and carried it on a narrow-gauge train: today that route is the End of the World Train, and the prison is the Maritime and Prison Museum.

Sources: Maritime and Prison Museum of Ushuaia · Instituto Fueguino de Turismo.

On 22 January 1930, the German cruise ship Monte Cervantes, with more than a thousand passengers on board, struck rocks as it left Ushuaia through the Beagle Channel. All passengers were rescued and housed in the small town; its captain died during the refloating operations. Its remains still lie at the bottom of the channel.

Sources: Maritime and Prison Museum of Ushuaia · Argentine Navy.

In 1946, during the first government of Juan Domingo Perón, the national State introduced Canadian beavers to the island to develop a fur industry. With no natural predators, they multiplied and are today the main threat to Fuegian forests: Argentina and Chile are working together to restore the affected ecosystems.

Sources: Argentine Ministry of Environment · Government of Tierra del Fuego.

• For millennia · the Yaghan or Yámana navigate the southern channels by canoe; the Selk'nam or Ona hunt guanacos on the northern steppe, and the Haush inhabit the Mitre Peninsula
• 1871 · the Anglican missionary Thomas Bridges settles with his family on the bay of Ushuaia; he writes a Yaghan-English dictionary that is still a reference
• 12 October 1884 · the South Atlantic Expeditionary Division, under the command of Navy Colonel Augusto Lasserre, reaches the bay of Ushuaia; after talking with Bridges at the Anglican Mission, where some 350 Yámana lived, the mission's British flag is lowered and the Argentine flag is raised. That date marks the founding of Ushuaia and the affirmation of national sovereignty in the south of the island
• 1886 · Thomas Bridges founds Estancia Harberton, on the Beagle, the oldest in the Argentine sector of the island
• 1902 · his sons Lucas, Despard and Will found Estancia Viamonte, near Río Grande, at the request of the Selk'nam, to whom they gave work and refuge. Lucas told that story in Uttermost Part of the Earth. Direct descendants of Thomas Bridges still live on both estancias today; at Viamonte four generations live together: Adrián Goodall, his daughter Cristina, and her children and grandchildren, who carry on the family's sheep-farming tradition
• 1990 · Tierra del Fuego, Antarctica and the South Atlantic Islands becomes a province

Sources: Argentine Navy, "Founding of Ushuaia" · Estancia Harberton · Estancia Viamonte · Government of Tierra del Fuego.

The Malvinas Islands, together with the Georgias del Sur and Sandwich del Sur Islands, are part of the province of Tierra del Fuego, Antarctica and the South Atlantic Islands.

• 1765-1774 · Great Britain maintains a settlement at Port Egmont and then withdraws; the islands remain under Spanish authority
• 1820-1829 · the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata take possession of the islands and appoint their authorities
• 3 January 1833 · a British force expels the Argentine authorities and begins the occupation that continues to this day
• 1965 · the United Nations General Assembly, through Resolution 2065, invites Argentina and the United Kingdom to negotiate a solution to the sovereignty dispute
• 1982 · between 2 April and 14 June the Malvinas War is fought; 649 Argentines gave their lives. The Río Grande Naval Air Base was key to the operations
• 1994 · the National Constitution ratifies Argentina's legitimate and imprescriptible sovereignty over the islands and their recovery by peaceful means

Every 2 April the veterans and the fallen of the war are honored, and every 10 June the Day of the Affirmation of Argentine Rights over the Malvinas is commemorated.

Sources: National Constitution, First Transitional Provision · United Nations, Resolution 2065 (XX) · Argentine Ministry of Foreign Affairs · Ministry of Defense.

Argentina has maintained an uninterrupted presence in Antarctica for more than 120 years, the longest of any country.

• 1903 · the Scottish expedition of William Speirs Bruce winters on Laurie Island, in the South Orkneys, and builds a weather station and Omond House, today a Historic Site and Monument of the Antarctic Treaty
• 1904 · Bruce offers the facilities to the Argentine government, which acquires them by decree of President Julio Argentino Roca. On 22 February 1904 the Argentine flag is raised in Antarctica for the first time: Hugo Alberto Acuña, aged 18, does so together with Edgard Szmula and Luciano Valette, the first crew. That date is today Argentine Antarctica Day
• Today · Orcadas is the oldest permanent human settlement in Antarctica. Its weather observatory has operated without interruption since 1904, one of the oldest in continuous operation in the world, and scientists from the Argentine Antarctic Institute research meteorology, glaciology, geology, geophysics, magnetism, atmospheric sciences and biology there. Moneta House is a museum, and the post office opened by Acuña, the first in Antarctica, is still in operation

The Argentine Antarctic Sector has 13 scientific bases today, and Ushuaia is the main gateway to the white continent. Argentina is an original signatory of the 1959 Antarctic Treaty.

Sources: Argentine Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Historical Archive · National Antarctic Directorate · Argentine Antarctic Institute.

• 1951 · Vice Commodore Gustavo Argentino Marambio flies from Río Gallegos to San Martín Base in the Avro Lincoln "Cruz del Sur" and drops emergency supplies: the Air Force's first flight over Antarctica. The island and the base bear his name
• 30 August 1969 · the Sovereignty Patrol, 21 Air Force men, sets up tents on the island's plateau and, with picks and shovels at about 20 degrees below zero, opens a dirt runway
• 29 October 1969 · an Air Force Fokker F-27 arriving from Río Gallegos lands: the first aircraft from another continent to touch down in Antarctica on conventional landing gear, and the base is inaugurated
• 11 April 1970 · the first Hercules C-130 lands on wheels

Operated by the Argentine Air Force, Marambio is today the main gateway for Argentine logistics in Antarctica: the largest number of scientific camps of each summer campaign is deployed from there. Its Multidisciplinary Antarctic Laboratory (LAMBI) has monitored the ozone layer since 1994, in a joint program with Spain.

Sources: Argentine Ministry of Foreign Affairs, National Antarctic Directorate · Argentine Air Force · Ministry of Defense.

USD 490 million, 18.2 % more than in 2024: 0.6 % of the national total and 3.9 % of Patagonia.

• Fuels and energy · USD 351 M
• Primary products · USD 74 M
• Manufactures of industrial origin · USD 44 M
• Manufactures of agricultural origin · USD 22 M

Main destinations: United States (USD 176 M, 36.0 %), Chile (USD 176 M), Brazil (USD 28 M) and European Union (USD 20 M). Main products: crude oil (USD 249 M), petroleum gas and other gaseous hydrocarbons (USD 102 M), unprocessed fish and seafood (USD 74 M) and plastics and their manufactures (USD 24 M).

Source: INDEC, Provincial origin of exports. Goods. Year 2025 (provisional data) and annex tables.

Crude oil (USD 249 M) and gas (USD 102 M) were its two leading exports in 2025.

Source: INDEC, Provincial origin of exports 2025.

Unprocessed fish and seafood accounted for USD 74 M in exports in 2025. Beagle Channel king crab and Patagonian toothfish from southern waters are its flagship products. The Beagle is also home to the red octopus, which CADIC is studying to develop a sustainable artisanal fishery.

Sources: INDEC, Provincial origin of exports 2025 · CADIC-CONICET.

The province's most populous city is a hub of the national electronics industry and a world destination for sport fishing of sea-run brown trout, introduced to the island by John Goodall, who married a granddaughter of Thomas Bridges.

Sources: Government of Tierra del Fuego · Estancia Viamonte.

At Estancia Viamonte, Cristina Goodall and her husband, Tomás Ayerza, grow garlic organically and make black garlic by hand: a sweet gourmet product of the highest quality, served in restaurants in Ushuaia. From harvest to preparation, it is one of the delicacies of the end of the world, together with the samphire, or sea asparagus, that they gather on the coast.

Source: Estancia Viamonte.

Ushuaia is home to CONICET's Southern Center for Scientific Research (CADIC), a benchmark in southern environmental sciences, and Río Grande to a Research and Transfer Center, together with the Universidad Nacional de Tierra del Fuego.

Source: CONICET, 2025 Management Report.