The River Piratini (Rio Piratini) is a Brazilian
river
A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of w ...
in the southern
state
State may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Literature
* ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State
* ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States
* ''Our S ...
of
Rio Grande do Sul. Until 1864 it marked, for most of its course, the accepted frontier between
Uruguay
Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...
and Brazil.
The river rises at the
watershed between the
Río de la Plata Basin
The Río de la Plata basin ( es, Cuenca del Plata, pt, Bacia do Prata), more often called the River Plate basin in scholarly writings, sometimes called the Platine basin or Platine region, is the hydrographical area in South America that drain ...
and the land that slopes directly to the Ocean. The headwaters are in the area of
Jóia, from where the river's 120 km (75 mile) trajectory runs almost all the way to the
Atlantic
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...
, separated from the ocean only by the
São Gonçalo Channel
The São Gonçalo Channel () is a navigable channel connecting two large coastal lagoons, Lagoa Mirim and Lagoa dos Patos, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul in southern Brazil. At its eastern end, it separates the municipalities of Rio Grande to ...
and the associated lagoons on the coastal frontier separating Brazil from Uruguay.
The Piratini's principal tributaries are the Santana Stream (arroyo Santana) on the right bank and the Iytuina and
Capivaras Streams (arroyos Ituina & de los Carpinchos on the left bank.
Along its course the Piratini separates the municipalities of
Pedro Osório
Pedro Osório is a Brazilian municipality in the southeastern part of the state of Rio Grande do Sul. The population is 7,706 (2020 est.) in an area of 608.79 km². The municipality was founded on April 3, 1958 from parts of the municipaliti ...
and
Cerrito from one another. The two are linked by a railway bridge which, unlike the surrounding buildings, withstood a destructive flood in 1992.
The name
“Piratini” is a composite word meaning “rebellious fish” (pirá=fish; tiní=angry, rebellious etc.)
See also
*
List of rivers of Rio Grande do Sul
List of rivers in Rio Grande do Sul (Brazilian State).
The list is arranged by drainage basin from north to south, with respective tributaries indented under each larger stream's name and ordered from downstream to upstream. All rivers in Rio Gr ...
References
Brazilian Ministry of Transport
Rivers of Rio Grande do Sul
Brazil–Uruguay border
International rivers of South America
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