Colorado River
Colorado River
The Colorado River is in the south of Argentina, marking the border between the provinces of Mendoza and Neuquén, La Pampa, and Río Negro. With a length of 684 miles, the river is commonly considered the northern border of the Patagonian region of Argentina. The Colorado River begins in the Andes mountain range in the province of Mendoza, at the confluence of the Barrancas River and the Grande River (its principal tributary). It flows into the Argentine Sea (Mar Argentino) in the Atlantic Ocean, to the south of the province of Buenos Aires. Its average volume of flow is more than 4,900 cubic feet per second.
The river basin can be divided into two sectors: the upper, made up of the Grande and Barrancas rivers all the way to Buta Ranquil, and the middle and lower, from Buta Ranquil to the Atlantic Ocean. The river runs in an east-southeasterly direction through a sparsely populated region. Its waters are used for irrigation, although the river could also be transformed in the future into a key waterway for shallow draft vessels.
See alsoArgentina, Geography; Mendoza; Neuquén; Patagonia.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Schard, Wernher. Los ríos mas australes de la tierra. Buenos Aires: Marymar Ediciones, 1983.
Richard Reed