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Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of 2,780,400 km 2 (1,073,500 sq mi), making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourth-largest country in the Americas, and the eighth-largest country in the world.
- Overview
- Land
- Drainage
- Soils
Argentina, country of South America, covering most of the southern portion of the continent. The world’s eighth largest country, Argentina occupies an area more extensive than Mexico and the U.S. state of Texas combined. It encompasses immense plains, deserts, tundra, and forests, as well as tall mountains, rivers, and thousands of miles of ocean shoreline. Argentina also claims a portion of Antarctica, as well as several islands in the South Atlantic, including the British-ruled Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas).
Argentina has long played an important role in the continent’s history. Following three centuries of Spanish colonization, Argentina declared independence in 1816, and Argentine nationalists were instrumental in revolutionary movements elsewhere, a fact that prompted 20th-century writer Jorge Luis Borges to observe, “South America’s independence was, to a great extent, an Argentine enterprise.” Torn by strife and occasional war between political factions demanding either central authority (based in Buenos Aires) or provincial autonomy, Argentina tended toward periods of caudillo, or strongman, leadership, most famously under the presidency of Juan Perón. The 1970s ushered in a period of military dictatorship and repression during which thousands of presumed dissidents were “disappeared,” or murdered; this ended in the disastrous Falklands Islands War of 1982, when Argentina invaded the South Atlantic islands it claimed as its own and was defeated by British forces in a short but bloody campaign. Defeat led to the fall of the military regime and the reestablishment of democratic rule, which has since endured despite various economic crises.
The country’s name comes from the Latin word for silver, argentum, and Argentina is indeed a great source of valuable minerals. More important, however, has been Argentina’s production of livestock and cereals, for which it once ranked among the world’s wealthiest nations. Much of this agricultural activity is set in the Pampas, rich grasslands that were once the domain of nomadic Native Americans, followed by rough-riding gauchos, who were in turn forever enshrined in the nation’s romantic literature. As Borges describes them in his story The South, the Pampas stretch endlessly to the horizon, dwarfing the humans within them; traveling from the capital toward Patagonia, the story’s protagonist, Señor Dahlmann, “saw horsemen along dirt roads; he saw gullies and lagoons and ranches; he saw long luminous clouds that resembled marble; and all these things were casual, like dreams of the plain.…The elemental earth was not perturbed either by settlements or other signs of humanity. The country was vast, but at the same time it was intimate and, in some measure, secret. The limitless country sometimes contained only a solitary bull. The solitude was perfect and perhaps hostile, and it might have occurred to Dahlmann that he was traveling into the past and not merely south.”
Despite the romantic lure of the Pampas and of vast, arid Patagonian landscapes, Argentina is a largely urban country. Buenos Aires, the national capital, has sprawled across the eastern Pampas with its ring of modern, bustling suburbs. It is among South America’s most cosmopolitan and crowded cities and is often likened to Paris or Rome for its architectural styles and lively nightlife. Its industries have drawn colonists from Italy, Spain, and numerous other countries, millions of whom immigrated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Greater Buenos Aires is home to about one-third of the Argentine people. Among the country’s other major cities are Mar del Plata, La Plata, and Bahía Blanca on the Atlantic coast and Rosario, San Miguel de Tucumán, Córdoba, and Neuquén in the interior.
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Argentina is shaped like an inverted triangle with its base at the top; it is some 880 miles (1,420 km) across at its widest from east to west and stretches 2,360 miles (3,800 km) from the subtropical north to the subantarctic south. The country is bounded by Chile to the south and west, Bolivia and Paraguay to the north, and Brazil, Uruguay, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Its undulating Atlantic coastline stretches some 2,900 miles (4,700 km).
Argentina’s varied geography can be grouped into four major regions: the Andes, the North, the Pampas, and Patagonia. The Andean region extends some 2,300 miles (3,700 km) along the western edge of the country from Bolivia to southern Patagonia, forming most of the natural boundary with Chile. It is commonly subdivided into two parts: the Northwest and the Patagonian Andes, the latter of which is discussed below under Patagonia. The North is commonly described in terms of its two main divisions: the Gran Chaco, or Chaco, comprising the dry lowlands between the Andes and the Paraná River; and Mesopotamia, an area between the Paraná and Uruguay rivers. The centrally located plains, or Pampas, are grasslands subdivided into arid western and more humid eastern parts called, respectively, the Dry Pampa and the Humid Pampa. Patagonia is the cold, parched, windy region that extends some 1,200 miles (1,900 km) south of the Pampas, from the Colorado River to Tierra del Fuego.
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The largest river basin in the area is that of the Paraguay–Paraná–Río de la Plata system. It drains an area of some 1.2 million square miles (3.2 million square km), which includes northern Argentina, the whole of Paraguay, eastern Bolivia, most of Uruguay, and a large part of Brazil. In Argentina the principal river of this system is the Paraná, formed by the confluence of the Paraguay and Alto Paraná rivers. The Río de la Plata (often called the River Plate) is actually the estuary outlet of the system formed by the confluence of the Paraná and Uruguay rivers; its name, meaning “River of Silver,” was coined in colonial times before explorers found that there was neither a single river nor silver upstream from its mouth. Other tributaries of this system are the Iguazú (Iguaçu), Pilcomayo, Bermejo, Salado, and Carcarañá. Just above its confluence with the Alto Paraná, the Iguazú River plunges over the escarpment of the Brazilian massif, creating Iguazú Falls—one of the world’s most spectacular natural attractions.
Aside from the Paraná’s main tributaries, there are few major rivers in Argentina. Wide rivers flow across the Gran Chaco flatlands, but their shallow nature rarely permits navigation, and never with regularity. Moreover, long-lasting summer floods cover vast areas and leave behind ephemeral swamplands. During winter most rivers and wetlands of the Gran Chaco dry up, the air chills, and the land seems visibly to shrink. Only three of the region’s numerous rivers—the Pilcomayo, Bermejo, and Salado—manage to flow from the Andes to the Paraguay-Paraná system in the east without evaporating en route and forming salt pans (salinas). The region’s largest rivers follow a veritable maze of courses during flood season, however.
In the Northwest the Desaguadero River and its tributaries in the Andes Mountains water the sandy deserts of Mendoza province. The principal tributaries are the Jáchal, Zanjón, San Juan, Mendoza, Tunuyán, and Diamante. In the northern Pampas, Lake Mar Chiquita, the largest lake in Argentina, receives the waters of the Dulce, Primero, and Segundo rivers but has no outlet. Its name, meaning “Little Sea,” refers to the high salt content of its waters.
Rivers that cross Patagonia from west to east diminish in volume as they travel through the arid land. The Colorado and Negro rivers, the largest in the south-central part of the country, produce major floods after seasonal snow and ice melt in the Andes. Farther south the Santa Cruz River flows eastward out of the glacial Lake Argentino in the Andean foothills before reaching the Atlantic.
Soil types in Argentina range from the light-coloured saline formations of the high puna in the Northwest to the dark, humus-rich type found in the Pampas. Golden-brown loess soils of the Gran Chaco are sometimes lighter where salinity is excessive but turn darker toward the east in the Mesopotamian border zone. These give way to soils ranging from...
With its vibrant cities, glorious national parks and world-class food and wine, Argentina has it all. Here's how to sort your visa before you visit. Read article
Apr 11, 2024 · Argentina - The World Factbook. Explore All Countries. Argentina. South America. Page last updated: April 11, 2024. Photos of Argentina. view 29 photos. Introduction. Background. In 1816, the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata declared their independence from Spain.
Jun 27, 2023 · Argentina, located in southern South America, covers a vast expanse of 1,073,500 square miles (2,780,400 square kilometers), making it the second largest country in South America, the fourth largest in the Americas, and the eighth largest in the world.
- Buenos Aires
- Argentine Republic
- 2,736,690.00 km 2
- 2,780,400.00 km 2
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Jan 8, 2024 · Argentina country profile - BBC News. 8 January. Argentina stretches 4,000km from its sub-tropical north to the sub-Antarctic south. Its terrain includes part of the Andes mountain range,...
Nov 18, 2023 · 1. Buenos Aires. Best for eating out. Sultry tango clubs and cacophonous football matches, beautiful barrios (neighborhoods) and historic cemeteries, world-class museums and raucous nightlife – Buenos Aires has everything you need for an immersive, big city experience. Above all, the Argentine capital is a fantastic place to eat out.
