Valdivia topographic map

Name: Valdivia topographic map, elevation, terrain.

Location: Valdivia, Provincia de Valdivia, Los Ríos Region, Chile (-40.03202 -73.41394 -39.63708 -72.92085)

Average elevation: 143 m

Minimum elevation: -3 m

Maximum elevation: 705 m

Within the context of plate tectonics the city lies at a convergent margin where Nazca Plate in the Pacific is subducted beneath the South American Plate. Topographically Valdivia lies in a depression amidst the Chilean Coast Range. The basement rocks that crops out in the hills around the city are of metamorphic type. The city itself is chiefly built upon terraces made up of hardened volcanic sand. This volcanic sandstone is known as "cancagua" and deposited during the late Pleistocene epoch. As terraces took shape during the interglacial preceding the Llanquihue glaciation —the last glacial period— this interglacial is known in Chile as the Valdivia interglacial.