Desolación Island is an island at the western end of the Strait of Magellan

Strait of Magellan

The Strait of Magellan comprises a navigable sea route immediately south of mainland South America and north of Tierra del Fuego...

 in the Magallanes y la Antártica Chilena Region

Magallanes y la Antártica Chilena Region

The XII Magallanes and Antártica Chilena Region is one of Chile's 15 first order administrative divisions...

, Chile

Chile

Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...

. It belongs to the Tierra del Fuego

Tierra del Fuego

Tierra del Fuego is an archipelago off the southernmost tip of the South American mainland, across the Strait of Magellan. The archipelago consists of a main island Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego divided between Chile and Argentina with an area of , and a group of smaller islands including Cape...

 archipelago. Its area is 1352 sqkm and the highest point is Monte Harte Dyke, at 1097 metres (3,599.1 ft).

Desolación Island in fiction

The Douglas Preston

Douglas Preston

Douglas Preston is an American author who has written seventeen popular techno-thriller and horror novels, four alone and the rest with Lincoln Child...

 and Lincoln Child

Lincoln Child

Lincoln Child is an author of seventeen techno-thriller and horror novels. He often writes with Douglas Preston. Many of their novels have become bestsellers, and one, Relic, was adapted into a feature film...

 novel The Ice Limit

The Ice Limit

The Ice Limit is a 2000 techno-thriller novel by authors Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child.-Plot summary:Meteorite hunter Nestor Masangkay arrives on Isla Desolación, a small island near Cape Horn in Chile, tracking a possible meteorite. Using a tomgraphic scanner, Masangkay confirms that not only...

described an expedition to Isla Desolacion near Cape Horn in Chile. The map in the (paperback) edition incorrectly identifies easterly Isla Wollastone as Isla Desolacion.

James Michener's novel "Hawaii

Hawaii (novel)

Hawaii is a novel by James Michener published in 1959. Written in episodic format like many of Michener's works, the book narrates the story of the original Hawaiians who sailed to the islands from Bora Bora, the early American missionaries and merchants, and the Chinese and Japanese immigrants who...

" depicts an attempt by a sailing ship to pass the Straits of Magellan, describing the western exit past Desolation Island as the most difficult part of the passage.