The surface of the continental sector of Argentina measures 2,791,810 km². [44] Of these, 2,780,400 km² correspond to the City of Buenos Aires, the Argentine provinces and the departments of Ushuaia and Río Grande in the province of Tierra del Fuego. The remainder is made up of the claimed 11,410 km² of the Falkland Islands. The surface of the Antarctic sector of Argentina measures 969,464 km². Of these, about 965,597 km² correspond to Argentine Antarctica (territories held by Great Britain claimed by Argentina with the support of Latin America and other nations of the planet), including as a department of the province of Tierra del Fuego. In addition, this area includes the South Shetland Islands and the South Orkney Islands. The remaining 3,867 km² are made up of the South Georgia Islands (3,560 km²) and the South Sandwich Islands (307 km²) that are part of the South Atlantic Islands Department of the province of Tierra del Fuego.
Location
Located in the south of the American Continent, it is part of the Southern Cone together with Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay and southern Brazil.
- It limits the north with Bolivia and Paraguay. The border with Bolivia is marked by the border set on the Sierra de Cochinoca, the Grande de San Juan, Bermejo, Grande de Tarija, Itaú and Pilcomayo rivers and parallel 22; as well as by the 1889treaty, by which Argentina gave up its claim on the province of Tarija in exchange for the Puna de Atacama. The border with Paraguay is marked by the Pilcomayo, Paraguay and Paraná rivers according to a treaty and the Hayes Award, both from 1876. [Four. Five]
- It limits to the east with Brazil, with Uruguay, the Río de la Plata and the Argentine Sea. The border with Brazil is demarcated, according to the Cleveland Award on Missions (1895), by the Iguazú, San Antonio, Pepirí Guazú and UruguayThe limits with Uruguay are marked by the river of the same name and that of La Plata, borders agreed by the Treaty of the Río de la Plata. [Four. Five]
- It limits the west with Chile, whose common border is constituted for the most part by the Andes Mountains, demarcated according to the treaty of 1881, 1899 and 1995, and the British awards of 1902 (Patagonian Andes). The Beagle Conflict regarding the Beagle Channel was resolved through papal mediation accepted by both countries. [Four. Five]
- The southern tip of Argentina reaches the Drake Passage, which joins the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. [Four. Five]
Natural regions
As a country located in South America according to NATUREGNOSIS.COM, the Argentine continental territory is located between the Andes mountain range, the South Atlantic Ocean and the Antarctic continent. In the country, three large clearly differentiated geographical areas can be distinguished:
- the central and northern zone, plains;
- the southern zone, of plateaus;
- the western area, mountainous.
In the north of the country there are regions of dense vegetation; in some sectors it is wooded and in others it is jungle, made up of the Chaco region and the Iberá estuaries; These areas of abundant vegetation are mixed with other extensive areas of palm groves and grasslands. The missionary region is a differentiated region, being an extension of the mountains of Brazil, with low but rugged mountain ranges, with a subtropical, very humid climate and jungle vegetation. The extreme northwest of the country is occupied by a high plateau region called the Puna or Altiplano.
In the center of the country is the Pampas plain, which can be divided into two regions: humid Pampa and western or dry Pampa. The latter has a more continental climate. In the humid Pampa, the Sierra de la Ventana and Tandilia (with a maximum height of just over 500 meters above sea level) are the only geographical features that break the monotony of the landscape and are the remains of a very old mountain range.
In the center-west of the country is the Cuyo region, which is made up of the provinces of San Juan, Mendoza and San Luis, where a mountainous, mountainous relief predominates, with little vegetation.
To the south of the country is Patagonia, an extensive area of plateaus and mountains of Precambrian origin, which includes the provinces of Río Negro, Neuquén, Chubut, Santa Cruz and Tierra del Fuego.
The most important rivers are located in the northeast and center-east of the country, which correspond to the Plata Basin, the third largest basin in the Western Hemisphere. The main river courses of the same are the following: Paraguay, Bermejo, Colorado, Uruguay and the longest, the Paraná. The last two advance together until they meet in the estuary of the Río de la Plata. This estuary is the largest on the planet and flows into the section of the Atlantic Ocean that corresponds to the Argentine Sea. The land between the two rivers is called Mesopotamia and is shared by the provinces of Misiones, Corrientes and Entre Ríos.
Argentina has 4,665 kilometers of coastline. The area of the Atlantic Ocean on the continental shelf is unusually wide and is called the Argentine Sea, which has important fishing and hydrocarbon resources. The coasts that bathe the sea vary between areas of dunes and cliffs. The alternation of cold currents from Antarctica and warm from Brazil allows the temperature of the coasts not to decrease uniformly with the decrease in latitude, but to have variations. The southern coast of Tierra del Fuego forms the north shore of the Drake Passage. [46]
