River
Loa River
440 km from source to mouth · Chile.
ChileFlows into Pacific Ocean1st longest in Chile
In numbers
Length
440km
Average flow
240m³/s
Basin
33,600km²
Drop
3,999m
from 3,999 m to 0 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
440 km of river and 7 stops on the way: 2 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmMiño Volcanoat 3,999 m
- 113 kmSan Pedro de Inacaliri Rivertributary
- 120 kmEmbalse Conchi0.7 km²
- 121 kmViaducto de Loa
- 164 kmSalado River (Loa)tributary
- 198 kmCalama166,334 people
- 269 kmSan Salvador Rivertributary
- 362 kmQuillagua141 people
- 440 kmPacific Oceanat 0 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Chile
At the mouth it carries 243 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 10 seconds. It drops from 3,999 m to 0 m, 9.1 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 33,600 km², about the size of MD. 168,000 people live in it. Highest water: from January to February; lowest: from June to August and December. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- CalamaLargest city on its banks · 166,334 people
- El Loa Airport (CJC)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 5 km from the cityCar hire at CJC airport (Calama)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water1 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From January to April and OctoberThe best months to visit
Loa River, month by month
Highest water: from January to February
Lowest water: from June to August and December. Best months to visit: from January to April and October.
From about 0.0 m³/s in the lowest month to 13 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
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
The basin
Loa River: the basin in numbers
35,438 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 168,000people live in the basin
- 5/km²people per km²
- 2,398maverage altitude of the basin
- 20mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 11.9°Caverage air temperature
- 1%protected areas
What covers the basin
- 1% 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
Loa River: what you find on the way
- 1Locks
- 1River beachesPlaya El Loa
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.1 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Loa 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.
1lake on its wayLakeyas
4beaches at the mouth and on the banksCoastya
11mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Lakes and reservoirs (1)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Embalse Conchikm 1230.7km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
Beaches (4)
At the mouth (25 km) and on the banks, by Coastya
- Caleta Punta Arenas23 km away · cove21.5°C
- Caleta Lautaro14 km away · cove21.5°C
- Caleta Loakm 446 · cove21.4°C
- Caleta Chipana11 km away · cove21.4°C
Mountains at the source (11)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Miño Volcano11 km away5,661m
- Cerro Alconcha4.2 km away
- Cerro Michincha8.6 km away
- Cerro Palpana12 km away
- Cerro Polan14 km away
- Cerro Tres Monos12 km away
- Quilaquila14 km away
- Cerro del Mal Paso11 km away
3 more on PeakyasOpen Peakyas ↗
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.
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
Tributaries (6)
Also: San Pedro de Inacaliri River, Salado River (Loa), San Salvador River, Río Chela, Blanco River, Quebrada Amarga
Nearby
Rivers nearby
BoliviaWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q737831) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Course, profile, basin | RiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed along the river network from the point 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, Coastya, 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?
Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.
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