Río de la Plata
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This page discusses the South American estuary. For the football (soccer) team, see Club Atlético River Plate. For the river in Puerto Rico, see Rio de la Plata (Puerto Rico). Among some English speakers, the estuary is known as the River Plate, q.v. |
Río de la Plata in relation to Uruguay and Argentina |
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A satellite view of the estuary |
The
Río de la Plata (
Spanish: "
Silver River") — which is often referred to in
English-speaking countries as the
River Plate (as in the
Battle of the River Plate), or sometimes as the [
La]
Plata River — is the
estuary formed by the combination of the
Uruguay River and the
Paraná River. It is a funnel-shaped indentation on the southeastern coastline of
South America, extending 290 km (180 miles) from the rivers'
confluence to the
Atlantic Ocean.
Where the rivers join, it is 48 km (30 miles) wide, and it runs to the southeast growing to 220 km (136 miles) wide where it opens on the Atlantic Ocean, making it the widest river in the world. It forms part of the border between
Argentina and
Uruguay, with the major ports and capital cities of
Buenos Aires in the southwest and
Montevideo in the northeast.
Martín García island, off the coast of Uruguay, is nevertheless under Argentine sovereignty.
The
basin drained by the main tributaries of the Río de la Plata (the Uruguay and Paraná, and the important Paraná tributary, the
Paraguay) covers approximately 1/5 of South America, including area in southeastern
Bolivia, southern and central
Brazil, the entire nation of
Paraguay, most of Uruguay and northern Argentina. An estimated 57 million m³ (2 billion cubic feet) of
silt is carried into the estuary each year, where the muddy waters are stirred up by winds and the
tides. The shipping route from the Atlantic to Buenos Aires is kept open by constant
dredging.
 |
Another satellite view of the estuary |
The river's first sighting by a European was in
1516, when
Spanish seaman
Juan Díaz de Solís discovered it during his search for a passage between the Atlantic and the
Pacific Oceans. He and a group of his men disembarked in what is today the Uruguayan
Department of Colonia and were attacked by the
natives (probably
Guaraní although for a long time the fact was adjudicated to the
Charrúas). Only one of them survived, a 14-year-old
cabin boy named
Francisco del Puerto, allegedly because the natives' culture prevented them from killing elderly people, women and children.
Years later, from a ship commanded by
Sebastián Gaboto, "a huge native making signals and yelling from the coast" was seen; when some of the crew disembarked, they found Francisco del Puerto, brought up as a Charrúa warrior. He went back with the Spaniards and, after some time, returned to Uruguay, leaving no further trace of his whereabouts.
The area was visited by
Francis Drake's fleet in early
1578, in the early stages of his
circumnavigation. The first European colony was the city of
Buenos Aires, founded by
Pedro de Mendoza on
2 February 1536, abandoned and founded again by
Juan de Garay on
11 June 1580.
An early
World War II naval engagement between the German "pocket battleship" (heavy cruiser)
Admiral Graf Spee and British ships, the
Battle of the River Plate, started several miles off the coast of the estuary. The German ship retired up the estuary and put into port. A few days later, rather than fight she was scuttled in the estuary.
The English name "River Plate" is not a mistranslation, but in fact "plate" was used extensively as a noun for silver or gold from the 12th century onwards, especially in Early Modern English
[Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, online version.] and the estuary has been known as the
River Plate or
Plate River in English since at least the time of Francis Drake
[Sir Francis Drake's Famous Voyage Round the World; A Narrative by Francis Pretty, one of Drake's Gentlemen at Arms]. A modern translation of the Spanish
Río de la Plata is "Silver River", referring not to colour but to the riches of the fabled
Sierra del Plata thought to lie upstream.
The Río de la Plata is an habitat for the rare
La Plata Dolphin, sea turtles (
Caretta caretta,
Chelonia mydas, and
Dermochelys coriacea), and many species of fish.
*
British invasions of the Río de la Plata*
Government of the Río de la Plata*
Rioplatense Spanish*
Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata*Rela, Walter.
España en el Río de la Plata: Descubrimiento y Poblamientos (1516-1588). Montevideo: Club Español. 2001. ISBN 9974-39-317-5.:Primary sources, with commentary.
* Simionato, Claudia G., Vera, Carolina S., Siegismund, Frank (2005). "Surface Wind Variability on Seasonal and Interannual Scales Over Río de la Plata Area"
Journal of Coastal Research. 21 (4): 770-783.
Abstract online*
Hydrological report published by the
OAS*
Treaty between Uruguay and Argentina concerning the Rio de la Plata and the Corresponding Maritime Boundary (19 November 1973)*
Aquatic Habitat Modifications in La Plata River Basin, Patagonia and Associated Marine Areas*
Water and Land Management on the Uruguayan Coast of the Río de la Plata
