The talk “A Geological Journey through the Chelenko Geopark” by Dr. Manuel Suárez Dittus exceeds expectations among residents of the Río Ibáñez commune.
The geological richness of the General Carrera province was at the center of the second scientific outreach tour carried out by the Chelenko Geopark project.
The talk, “A Geological Journey through the Chelenko Geopark,” revealed the province’s impressive heritage in an event led by Dr. Manuel Suárez Dittus, geologist and professor at Universidad Andrés Bello, co-executing partner of the initiative that aims to lay the foundations for the first geopark in Aysén.
In December 2023, the implementation of the Chelenko Geopark project began. This CORFO Public Good initiative focuses on establishing the General Carrera province as a new geopark within UNESCO’s Global Geoparks program. This territory is recognized for having a unique geological and paleontological diversity in the country, and the UNESCO designation, focused on heritage preservation, could contribute to raising the area’s visibility and recognition at an international level.
From September 2 to 6, Suárez—co-discoverer of the Chilesaurus diegosuarezi and nominee for the 2024 National Prize for Natural Sciences—invited participants to explore the geological heritage of the shores of Lake General Carrera through talks and the distribution of scientific outreach materials in the towns of Puerto Tranquilo, Bahía Murta, Villa Cerro Castillo, and Puerto Ibáñez. These talks had a strong turnout from local residents.
“It’s been a fantastic personal experience because it allows us to exchange ideas with the communities of all these places, contributing through conversation. We didn’t just deliver a talk—we also showed fossils and rocks from the region, offering a sense of the geological and paleontological history of the Lake General Carrera coast,” said the Universidad Andrés Bello professor.
The initiative is focused on the outreach and appreciation of the territory’s geological, cultural, and natural heritage, based on pillars of education, conservation, and sustainable development. Specifically, in this first year of implementation, the project’s work is centered on raising awareness about the initiative and generating opportunities for heritage education open to the communities living along the shores of Lake General Carrera.
Felipe Andrade, geologist and coordinator of the Chelenko Geopark project, stated that the strong attendance from local residents at the activities reveals the interest the initiative has sparked in the territory. “As a project, we’ve been quite pleased with the results we’ve achieved so far. To date, we’ve toured the entire province of General Carrera with the goal of communicating, transmitting, and sharing the various types of knowledge surrounding geological heritage—both with schools and with residents of the communities. What also drives us is creating outreach and educational spaces for the people who are the rightful stewards of these heritages, so that knowledge remains in the territory and those same people can pass it on and generate actions for change,” Andrade said.