Punta Arenas Chile

Punta Arenas, Chile, is where Operation Ice Bridge’s Antarctic campaign is based. Weather permitting, flights leave from the airport in Punta Arenas for round trip flights over Antarctica to study changes to the region’s sea ice, ice sheets and glaciers. Credit: Jim Yungel/NASA

Punta Arenas  is the capital city of Chile’s southernmost region, Magallanes and Antartica Chilena. Therefore the city was officially renamed as Magallanes in 1927, but in 1938. And it was changed back to “Punta Arenas”.  Also It is the largest city south of the 46th parallel south. As of 1977 Punta Arenas has been one of only two free ports in Chile, the other one being Iquique, in the country’s far north.[4] (Note that Punta Arenas itself is not a “free port”, but rather outside the city; there is a small “zona franca” where certain products can be imported into the country under a reduced-tax regimen.