"Smoking" peaks of the Patagonian batholith. Credit: Christoph Mayr (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)
The indigenous name of the 3405 meter high Fitz Roy mountain in Patagonia, on the border between Argentina and Chile, is frequently translated as “smoking mountain”. This photo may visually explain an origin of this name. On the day the photo was taken, vortices downwind of the peak drew warmer, humid air from below, forming banner clouds at the leeward site of the Fitz Roy mountain and the adjacent Aguja Val de Vois mountain (2653 m) to the right, whereas the peak of Cerro Poincenot (left, 3002 m) is free of clouds. All these peaks are part of the South-Patagonian batholith consisting of granitic rocks exposed by glacier erosion.
Description by Christoph Mayr, after the description on imaggeo.egu.eu.
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