River
Desaguadero River
1,515 km from source to mouth · Argentina.
ArgentinaFlows into Colorado River2nd longest in Argentina
In numbers
Length
1,515km
Average flow
150m³/s
Basin
260,000km²
Drop
375m
from 504 m to 129 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
1,515 km of river and 7 stops on the way: 0 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 504 m
- 1 kmrío Bermejo-Vinchinatributary
- 293 kmTunuyán Rivertributary
- 464 kmDiamante Rivertributary
- 803 kmAtuel Rivertributary
- 1,183 kmLaguna La Leona9.8 km²
- 1,216 kmLaguna Urre Lauquen48 km²
- 1,245 kmLaguna Amarga118 km²
- 1,515 kmColorado Riverat 129 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Argentina
At the mouth it carries 153 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 16 seconds. It drops from 504 m to 129 m, 0.2 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 260,000 km², about the size of GA. 2.5 million people live in it. Highest water: from January to March; lowest: from July to September. Dams and reservoirs hold back a large share of its water (48% of a year's flow).
Where to start
- Cuchillo CóA town on its banks
- Santa Rosa Airport (RSA)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 197 km from the cityCar hire at RSA airport (Santa Rosa)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From February to April and from October to NovemberThe best months to visit
Desaguadero River, month by month
Highest water: from January to March
Lowest water: from July to September. Best months to visit: from February to April and from October to November.
From about 43 m³/s in the lowest month to 190 m³/s in the highest. An estimate: the monthly flow is modelled from the lowest and highest months of WaterGAP (RiverATLAS, 1971–2000) and the rain and snow along the river (WorldClim). Dams change the real rhythm. The chip is the average air temperature; below it, the month's rain.
Plan the trip
Plan the trip: boat trips, a bed by the river, a car
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The basin
Desaguadero River: the basin in numbers
251,776 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 2.5millionpeople live in the basin
- 10/km²people per km²
- 1,612maverage altitude of the basin
- 263mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 11.7°Caverage air temperature
- 7%protected areas
- 0.2%covered by lakes
- 3%permafrost
- 2.3km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 1% Forest
- 1% Cropland
- 22% Pasture
RiverATLAS (HydroATLAS v1.0, CC BY 4.0): land cover, people, protected areas, glaciers and dams over the whole basin upstream of the mouth.
Along the river
Desaguadero River: what you find on the way
- 1Waterfalls
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.6 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Desaguadero River in our other atlases
What our sister atlases know about the waterfalls on this river, the lakes it flows through, the beaches at its mouth, the mountains where it rises and the islands off its mouth.
3lakes on its wayLakeyas
1mountain at the sourcePeakyas
Lakes and reservoirs (3)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Laguna La Leonakm 7829.8km²
- Laguna Urre Lauquenkm 80448km²
- Laguna Amargakm 823118km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
Mountains at the source (1)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Cerro Divisadero8.4 km away
From space
The source and the mouth, seen from orbit
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 by EOX IT Services GmbH (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2016), CC BY 4.0. The glowing line is the river as drawn by RiverATLAS.
Photos
Desaguadero River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Colorado RiverArgentina1,200 km140 m³/sTributaries (7)
Also: Atuel River, Jáchal River, Diamante River, Tunuyán River, Huaco River, río Bermejo-Vinchina
Where these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q385342) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Course, profile, basin | RiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed from the source to the mouth given by Wikidata |
| Flow | WaterGAP (RiverATLAS), 1971–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Climate along the river | WorldClim (RiverATLAS), 1970–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Towns, bridges, dams | Wikidata · CC0; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0 |
| Along the river | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Our other atlases | Lakeyas, Peakyas — Wikidata · CC0; © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0; HydroLAKES · CC BY 4.0; NOAA OISST |
Every source and licence is on the data sources page.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers or canyons?
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