River
Neuquén River
400 km from source to mouth · Argentina.
ArgentinaFlows into Río Negro
In numbers
Length
400km
Average flow
310m³/s
Basin
50,770km²
Drop
1,741m
from 1,997 m to 256 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
400 km of river and 9 stops on the way: 6 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmLos Chenquesat 1,997 m
- 0 kmLago Varvarco Campos22 km²
- 5 kmLaguna Varvarco Tapia2.6 km²
- 120 kmChos Malal11,721 people
- 231 kmAgrio Rivertributary
- 311 kmAñelo6,304 people
- 369 kmCentenario48,101 people
- 371 kmCinco Saltos26,399 people
- 379 kmNeuquén231,198 people
- 381 kmCipolletti95,524 people
- 400 kmRío Negroat 256 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 308 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 8.1 seconds. It drops from 1,997 m to 256 m, 4.4 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 50,770 km², about the size of CR. 463,000 people live in it. Highest water: July; lowest: from December to March. It is heavily dammed: reservoirs can hold 121% of a year's flow.
Where to start
- NeuquénLargest city on its banks · 231,198 people
- Presidente Perón International Airport (NQN)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 8 km from the cityCar hire at NQN airport (Neuquén)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water2 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From November to MarchThe best months to visit
Neuquén River, month by month
Highest water: July
Lowest water: from December to March. Best months to visit: from November to March.
From about 300 m³/s in the lowest month to 2,300 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
Neuquén River: the basin in numbers
94,336 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 463,000people live in the basin
- 5/km²people per km²
- 1,094maverage altitude of the basin
- 451mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 9.6°Caverage air temperature
- 10%protected areas
- 2.9%covered by lakes
- 42km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 11% Forest
- 34% 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
Neuquén River: what you find on the way
- 12Weirs
- 2Ferry piers
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.4 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Neuquén 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.
2lakes on its wayLakeyas
2mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Lakes and reservoirs (2)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Lago Varvarco Camposkm 022km²
- Laguna Varvarco Tapiakm 72.6km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
Mountains at the source (2)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Cerro Pirámide13 km away
- Cerro de los Caballos6.1 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
Neuquén River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Río NegroArgentina635 km1,000 m³/sTributaries (7)
Also: Agrio River, Río Nahueve, Río Varvarco, Río Trocoman, Arroyo Covunco, Río Guañacos, Río Reñileuvú
In the same basin
ChileWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q1472009) · 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
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