Magellan, Strait of

Channel at the southern tip of Chile; it separates the South American mainland from Tierra del Fuego, and joins the South Pacific and South Atlantic oceans. It is 595 km/370 mi long with a maximum width of 32 km/20 mi. The strait is named after the Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan who discovered it in 1520. It provided a safer passage than that around Cape Horn, but its importance declined following the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914, an international waterway within Chile's territorial waters.