Río de la Plata
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This page is about the South American estuary. For the river in Puerto Rico, see Rio de la Plata (Puerto Rico).
| Río de la Plata | |
| River Plate, [La] Plata River | |
| River | |
 NASA photo of the Río de la Plata looking from west to east. Buenos Aires is visible on the right side near the Paraná River delta. River sediments turn the water brown to the vicinity of Montevideo, visible on the left coast.
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| Name origin: Spanish, "river of silver" | |
| Countries | Argentina, Uruguay |
|---|---|
| Tributaries | |
| - left | Uruguay River, San Juan River, Santa Lucía River |
| - right | Paraná River, Luján River, Salado River |
| Cities | Buenos Aires, Montevideo |
| Source | confluence of Paraná and Uruguay Rivers |
| - elevation | 0 m (0 ft) |
| - coordinates | 34°0′5″S 58°23′37″W / 34.00139°S 58.39361°W [1] |
| Mouth | Atlantic Ocean |
| - location | Argentine Sea, Argentina & Uruguay |
| - elevation | 0 m (0 ft) |
| - coordinates | 35°40′S 55°47′W / 35.667°S 55.783°W [2] |
| Length | 290 km (180 mi) [3] 4,876 km including the Paraná |
| Width | 220 km (137 mi) [4] |
| Basin | 4,144,000 km² (1,600,000 sq mi) [3] |
| Discharge | for mouth |
| - average | 22,000 m³/s (777,000 cu ft/s) [3] |
 Map of the La Plata Basin, showing the Río de la Plata at the mouths of the Paraná and Uruguay rivers, near Buenos Aires.
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 Map of the Río de la Plata, showing cities in Argentina and Uruguay.
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The Río de la Plata—sometimes called River Plate in British English —is a river in Argentina. It is made from the Uruguay River and the Paraná River. These rivers are on the border between Argentina and Uruguay. It is about 290 kilometres (180 mi) long.
The Río de la Plata widens from about 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) at the inner part to about 220 kilometres (140 mi) at its mouth.[4] Buenos Aires is on its western shore. Montevideo is on its northern shores.
The Río de la Plata is home for the Loggerhead Sea Turtle, Green Sea Turtle, Leatherback Sea Turtle, the rare La Plata Dolphin, and many species of fish.
References [change]
- ↑ Río Paraná Guazú at GEOnet Names Server (main distributary of the Río Paraná)
- ↑ "Limits of Oceans and Seas, 3rd edition". International Hydrographic Organization. 1953. http://www.iho-ohi.net/iho_pubs/standard/S-23/S23_1953.pdf. Retrieved 7 February 2010.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 "Río de la Plata". Encyclopædia Britannica. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/463804/Rio-de-la-Plata. Retrieved 11 August 2010.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Fossati, Monica; Ismael Piedra-Cueva. "Salinity Simulations of the Rio de la Plata". International Conference on Estuaries and Coasts. http://www.irtces.org/pdf-hekou/075.pdf. Retrieved 11 August 2010.
Other websites [change]
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