Plottier is a city located in the
Confluencia Department
Confluencia is a department located in the east of Neuquén Province in Argentina.
Neuquén, the capital city of the province, is located in this department.
The department is named ''Confluencia'' after the confluence of the rivers Neuquén and Li ...
, in
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 ...
, Argentina.
The population is 40.000 inhabitants. It is about 15 km from
Neuquén City, which turns this city into an important place for the population.
Plottier is located near the
Limay River
The Limay River is an important river in the northwestern Argentine Patagonia (the region of Comahue). It originates at the eastern end of the Nahuel Huapi Lake and flows in a meandering path for about , collecting the waters of several tributari ...
and it is crossed by the
22 National Route.
History
The city takes the name from the founder of the city, Dr. Alberto Plottier, an Uruguayan doctor who established an agrarian settlement at the beginning of the century.
Geography
The ground in the valley is wet, composed of
sand
Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural class of s ...
s,
gravel
Gravel is a loose aggregation of rock fragments. Gravel occurs naturally throughout the world as a result of sedimentary and erosive geologic processes; it is also produced in large quantities commercially as crushed stone.
Gravel is classifi ...
s and consolidated limos. Over the hills, the ground is composed by
Pebble
A pebble is a clast of rock with a particle size of based on the Udden-Wentworth scale of sedimentology. Pebbles are generally considered larger than granules ( in diameter) and smaller than cobbles ( in diameter). A rock made predominant ...
s denominated tehuelche Pebble. The most old grounds are composed of
sandstone
Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks.
Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...
s,
limonite
Limonite () is an iron ore consisting of a mixture of hydrated iron(III) oxide-hydroxides in varying composition. The generic formula is frequently written as FeO(OH)·H2O, although this is not entirely accurate as the ratio of oxide to hydroxid ...
s and
clay
Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4).
Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...
ey where the color is mostly red.
Climate
The medium annual temperatures are between 57,2 °F (14 °C) and 53,6 (12 °C). The amount of water from the rain is less than 300 mm a year and the strong winds of the zone are between 12.42 mph (20 km/h) and 74.56 mph (120 km/h).
History
After the
Conquest of the Desert
The Conquest of the Desert ( es, Conquista del desierto) was an Argentine military campaign directed mainly by General Julio Argentino Roca in the 1870s with the intention of establishing dominance over the Patagonian Desert, inhabited primari ...
, the
General Julio Argentino Roca
Alejo Julio Argentino Roca Paz (July 17, 1843 – October 19, 1914) was an army general and statesman who served as President of Argentina from 1880 to 1886 and from 1898 to 1904. Roca is the most important representative of the Generation ...
asked for lands near the Neuquén river for their strategic military value. These lands were called Colonia Sayhueque.
The main economy of the region was the raising of bovine cattle and ovine cattle.
In 1916 Plottier was one of the tragic scenarios of the escape of prisoners from Neuquén prison. The engineer Adolfo Plottier was executed by one of the fugitives and the general grocery was looted.
Since 1920, the Plottier brothers started selling their lands for the establishment of immigrant settlers. As a result, the colonies el Triángulo, Colonia Suiza, San Eugenio, Viña del Río, San Agustín, y Colonización ferrocarril Sub —an English colony settled on April the 2nd— were formed.
On 26 March 1935, Agustín P. Justo, the president of the nation, recognized the formation of the Comisión de Fomento de Plottier, thereby recognizing the municipalization of this community. This date has not only been adopted as the most far-reaching date for the town but it also has been included in the Carta Orgánica Municipal.
Economy
The main production of the zone is agriculture. Apples and pears are the main cultives.
Other important activity in this area is the extraction of
petroleum
Petroleum, also known as crude oil, or simply oil, is a naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations. The name ''petroleum'' covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crud ...
.
{{Neuquén - Plottier - Cipolletti
Populated places in Neuquén Province