Malargüe () is a city in the southwest part of

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''Roman province, provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire ...

of Mendoza, Argentina, about 370 km south of the provincial capital Mendoza. It is the head town of the Malargüe Department, and it has about 27,000 inhabitants as per the .

Overview

The city is located in a semi-arid area. Agriculture is focused on the production of seed potato, along with minor crops such as

alfalfa Alfalfa () (''Medicago sativa''), also called lucerne, is a perennial flowering plant in the legume family Fabaceae. It is cultivated as an important forage crop in many countries around the world. It is used for grazing, hay, and silage, as w ...

onion An onion (''Allium cepa'' L., from Latin ''cepa'' meaning "onion"), also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is a vegetable that is the most widely cultivated species of the genus ''Allium''. The shallot is a botanical variety of the onion ...

and

garlic Garlic (''Allium sativum'') is a species of bulbous flowering plant in the genus ''Allium''. Its close relatives include the onion, shallot, leek, chive, Allium fistulosum, Welsh onion and Allium chinense, Chinese onion. It is native to South A ...

. In the past, the local industries included oil exploration and production (now almost completely deactivated) and

uranium Uranium is a chemical element with the symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Uranium is weak ...

mining. As a touristic area, Malargüe provides hotels and cabins for visitors interested in

eco-tourism Ecotourism is a form of tourism involving responsible travel (using sustainable transport) to natural areas, conserving the environment, and improving the well-being of the local people. Its purpose may be to educate the traveler, to provide funds ...

in the summer and skiing in the winter at the nearby resorts of

Las Leñas Las Leñas is a ski resort in Argentina, located in the western part of Mendoza Province. It has reliable powder snow and climate for extreme and off-piste skiing. Construction of the ski center began January 1983, and by July 1983, it opened wi ...

and Los Molles. The city is known for its traditional dish, the ''chivito'' (baby goat). It hosts the annual National Festival of the Goat and the Provincial Festival of the Lamb, during the second week of January. File:Reloj del cincuentenario Malargüe.jpg, Clock tower in the city center File:Pozo de Las Animas Mendoza Argentina.jpg, Las Animas well

History

1972

On 13 October 1972 the

Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 The Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 was a chartered flight from Montevideo, Uruguay, bound for Santiago, Chile, that crashed in the Andes mountains on October 13, 1972. The accident and subsequent survival became known as the Andes flight disaste ...

crashed in the

Andes The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...

, in the municipal territory of Malargüe ().

Climate

Malargüe's climate is dry and relatively cold. It is a

semi-arid climate A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of semi-ar ...

under the

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

. Summers bring very warm days (the average high is ) and cool nights (), with sporadic thunderstorms occurring. By March or early April, frost is to be expected, and during the winter (May to September), wild fluctuations of temperature can occur: the average high is and the average low is , but northwesterly winds that blow downslope from the Andes can bring temperatures of , and extreme Antarctic outbreaks will bring periods of snow, daytime highs well below and night lows well below .

Transport and infrastructures

Transportation

Malargüe is linked to the north of Mendoza by

National Route 40 The following highways are numbered 40: International * European route E40 Argentina * National Route 40 Australia * NSW State Route 40 (Windsor Road and Victoria Road in Sydney) * Victorian State Route 40 * Mulligan Highway (Queensland) B ...

. This route continues south, entering

Neuquén Province Neuquén () is a province of Argentina, located in the west of the country, at the northern end of Patagonia. It borders Mendoza Province to the north, Rio Negro Province to the southeast, and Chile to the west. It also meets La Pampa Province a ...

, but is only partially built and not well maintained beyond Malargüe City. Air traffic in the area (only local flights) is served by the Comodoro D. Ricardo Salomón Airport.

Aerolíneas Argentinas Aerolíneas Argentinas, formally Aerolíneas Argentinas S.A., is Argentina's largest airline and the country flag carrier. The airline was created in 1949 from the merger of four companies and started operations in . A consortium led by Iberia ...

and American Jet offer services, as of 2021, to this airport.

Astronomic and space center

Malargüe is also home to the

Pierre Auger Observatory The Pierre Auger Observatory is an international cosmic ray observatory in Argentina designed to detect ultra-high-energy cosmic rays: sub-atomic particles traveling nearly at the speed of light and each with energies beyond 1018 eV. In Ear ...

, an international physics experiment searching for

ultra-high-energy cosmic ray In astroparticle physics, an ultra-high-energy cosmic ray (UHECR) is a cosmic ray with an energy greater than 1 EeV (1018 electronvolts, approximately 0.16 joules), far beyond both the rest mass and energies typical of other cosmic ray parti ...

s. The

European Space Agency , owners = , headquarters = Paris, Île-de-France, France , coordinates = , spaceport = Guiana Space Centre , seal = File:ESA emblem seal.png , seal_size = 130px , image = Views in the Main Control Room (1205 ...

began construction of a deep space ground station 30 km south of Malargüe in 2010.ESA to build its third deep space ground station in Argentina
/ref> It became operational in early 2013

Malargüe Station Malargüe Station (also known as DSA 3 or Deep Space Antenna 3) is a 35-metre ESTRACK radio antenna in Argentina. It enables the European Space Agency (ESA) to communicate with spacecraft in deep space. It is located south of the town of Malargü ...

and is the third 35m dish in its

ESTRACK The European Space Tracking (ESTRACK) network consists of a number of ground-based space-tracking stations belonging to the European Space Agency (ESA), and operated by the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany. The stations ...

network.

References

External links

*
Municipality of Malargüe
— Official website.
Pierre Auger Observatory
{{DEFAULTSORT:Malargue Populated places in Mendoza Province Uranium mines Mining in Argentina