Notes

The Patagonian Desert, also known as the Patagonia Desert, Patagonian Steppe, or Magellanic Steppe, is the largest desert in Argentina and is the 4th largest desert in the world, occupying 673,000 square kilometers. It is located primarily in Argentina with small parts in Chile and is bounded by the Andes, to its west, and the Atlantic Ocean to its east, in the region of Patagonia, southern Argentina. To the north the desert grades into the semi-arid Cuyo Region and the Dry and Humid Pampas. The central parts of the dessert are dominated by shrubby and herbaceous plant species to the west, where precipitation is higher, bushes are replaced by grasses.

Inhabited by hunter-gatherers since Pre-Hispanic times the desert faced in the 19th century migration of Mapuches, Chileans, Argentines, Welsh and other European peoples transforming it from a conflictive borderland zone to an integral part of Argentina with cattle, sheep and horse husbandry being the primary land use.