Lies besides Laguna Azul, at its eastern side, smoothly wavy but prominent, with a gentle morphology that allows exploration regardless of its massive size. Its folds resemble land waves, characteristic of this mountain belt along with patched of shade that leak through cracks in the clouds.
Those who visit Torres del Paine National Park might contemplate Sierra Contreras from Laguna Azul camping. A landscape for passengers and for those privileged landowners who can enjoy it as daily background.
Georeading
Like a book that records the history of Earth, layer by layer, each rock stratum holds information from the landscapes of ancient times. 75 million years ago, the land of Sierra Contreras was the oceanic floor, an environment of deep water nearby a steep slope. Particles of sand were falling and accumulated slowly at the bottom of the sea, for hundreds of thousands of years.
The sand particles crystallized and cemented to turn in to a rock called sandstone, hundreds of meters thick. Every certain amount of time, the peaceful sand deposition was interrupted when the unstable slope gave in to gravity and perhaps a shake from an earthquake, triggering violent marine landslides leaving behind mass transport deposits.
The periodicity of this phenomenon results in the beautiful contrast between rock layers displayed on Sierra Contreras: the rock created by these mass transport deposits stands out as dark rocks on the wavy profile of this mountain range. They alternate with sandstone recording the dynamic history of ancient oceans.
