Malargüe is a

department Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

located in the south west of Mendoza Province in

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

. Its borders are San Rafael in the north,

La Pampa Province La Pampa () is a sparsely populated province of Argentina, located in the Pampas in the center of the country. Neighboring provinces are from the north clockwise San Luis, Córdoba, Buenos Aires, Río Negro, Neuquén and Mendoza. History In ...

in the east,

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 ...

in the south and

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

to the west. The provincial subdivision has a population of about 23,000 inhabitants in an area of , and its capital city is

Malargüe Malargüe () is a city in the southwest part of province 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 . Overvie ...

, which is located around from the federal capital

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

Geography

The south of the Malargüe Department is considered as the north tip of the Patagonia and is home to the many

nature reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological or ...

s such as La Payunia,

Castillos de Pincheira The Reserva Provincial Castillos de Pincheira ( es, Pincheira's Castles Provincial Reserve) is a nature reserve, natural area protected in Argentina. It's located about 27 km to the west of the Malargüe city in the southern part of the Mendoza Pr ...

, Caverna de las Brujas and Laguna de Llancanelo.

Districts

The department is divided in four

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...

s: * Agua Escondida *

* Río Barrancas *

Río Grande The Rio Grande ( and ), known in Mexico as the Río Bravo del Norte or simply the Río Bravo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. The length of the Rio G ...

Hydrology

Malargüe has many hydric resources. Among its most important rivers are the Grande River, the

Colorado River The Colorado River ( es, Río Colorado) is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The river drains an expansive, arid drainage basin, watershed that encompasses parts of ...

, the

Barrancas River The Barrancas River is a river in western Argentina. Traveling eastward from the Andes range, it separates the Argentine provinces of Mendoza and Neuquén. Joining the Río Grande, it merges into the Colorado, and flows into the Atlantic Ocean. S ...

and the

Malargüe River The Malargüe River (in Spanish: ''Río Malargüe'') is a river located in the southern zone of the Mendoza Province, in the west of Argentina. It originates in the Malargüe lake in the Andes range, at 2,500 m above mean sea level, flows into th ...

, and the lagoons of Llancanelo,

Negra A quarter note (American) or crotchet ( ) (British) is a musical note played for one quarter of the duration of a whole note (or semibreve). Quarter notes are notated with a filled-in oval note head and a straight, flagless stem. The stem us ...

and Niña Encantada.

Science

Malargüe is 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 observatory designed to detect

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 partic ...

Tourism

The department has many exciting natural landmarks and is well suited for adventure tourism such as mountaineering, paragliding, rafting and kayaking. Here are located such exciting landmarks as Castillos de Pincheira, Tigre Cave, Brujas Cave and Pozo de las Ánimas - two closely located, up to 101 m deep sinkholes, where the wind often creates a howling sound. Malargüe Department is home to the famous skiing resort of Las Leñas.

Gallery

Image:Pozo de Las Animas Mendoza Argentina.jpg, Las Animas Well File:Castillos de Pincheira 2.jpg, Castillos de Pincheira File:Las Leñas Mendoza Argentina by Andre Charland.jpg, Las Leñas ski resort

References

External links

Municipal Website
(Spanish)

(English) 1850 establishments in Argentina Departments of Mendoza Province {{MendozaAR-geo-stub