Continental Chile is the name given to the Chilean territory located on the continental shelf of South America. This term serves to distinguish the South American area from the insular territories, known as Insular Chile, as from the Chilean Antarctica (Chilean Antarctic Territory). The existence of this three areas of effective or claimed Chilean sovereignty is what supports the existing tricontinental principle in this country.
The term "Continental Chile Time" specifies the time zone of most of Continental Chile, Juan Fernández Islands and Desventuradas Islands, as UTC−4 in winter and UTC−3 in summer. However, the regions of Aysén and Magallanes and Chilean Antarctica use UTC−3 all year. Easter Island and Isla Salas y Gómez, both in Polynesia, use UTC−6 in winter and UTC−5 in summer.