Juncal Island is an island belonging to

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 ...

, located where the

Uruguay River The Uruguay River ( es, Río Uruguay, ; pt, Rio Uruguai, ) is a major river in South America. It flows from north to south and forms parts of the boundaries of Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay, separating some of the Argentine provinces of La M ...

empties into the

Río de la Plata The Río de la Plata (, "river of silver"), also called the River Plate or La Plata River in English, is the estuary formed by the confluence of the Uruguay River and the Paraná River at Punta Gorda. It empties into the Atlantic Ocean and fo ...

, a bit above the Uruguayan town of Carmelo. It is separated from Uruguay by the ''Canal de Camacho''. The much smaller Juncalito Island lies a kilometer north; to the west, separated by the principal channel, lies Portuguese Island (''Isla del Portugues''), which belongs to the Argentine province of Entre Rios.

History

The chief historical event associated with Juncal Island is the

Battle of Juncal The naval Battle of Juncal took place between a squadron of the newly independent United Provinces of the River Plate under command of William Brown and a squadron belonging to the Brazilian Empire, commanded by Sena Pereira. It spanned two d ...

, one of the most important naval battles of the

Cisplatine War The Cisplatine War (), also known as the Argentine-Brazilian War () or, in Argentine and Uruguayan historiography, as the Brazil War (''Guerra del Brasil''), the War against the Empire of Brazil (''Guerra contra el Imperio del Brasil'') or t ...

. Occurring on 8 and 9 February, 1827 between squadrons of the

Brazilian Empire The Empire of Brazil was a 19th-century state that broadly comprised the territories which form modern Brazil and (until 1828) Uruguay. Its government was a representative parliamentary constitutional monarchy under the rule of Emperors Dom P ...

and the

United Provinces of the Río de la Plata The United Provinces of the Río de la Plata ( es, link=no, Provincias Unidas del Río de la Plata), earlier known as the United Provinces of South America ( es, link=no, Provincias Unidas de Sudamérica), was a name adopted in 1816 by the Co ...

, the result was a complete victory for the United Provinces.

Description

From a geological point of view, the island is a mass of riverine affluvient founded on a precambrian

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies under ...

core. The coasts are sandy and feature gentle inclines near the channels. The island is low and flat, and can be completely submerged during high water. It has a total length of 4.91 km and a maximum width of 1.95 km. The western coast of the island is washed with waters from the river Guazú in addition to those of the Uruguay River from the north, while the east receives the cleaner and more oxygenated waters of the Camacho River; in this area a type of fish called a ''pejerrey'' ('' Odontesthes bonariensis'') can be found in abundance. As a result, it is a habitual destination for fishing boats. The vegetation of the island is primarily scrubland, although some trees can be found towards the center.

References

:* Carlos María Domínguez, ''Tres muescas para mi carabina'', Alfaguara Argentina, 2002, :*

José María Reyes José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced differently in each language: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ). In French, the name ''José'', pronounced , is an old vernacul ...

, ''Descripción geográfica del territorio de la República Oriental'', Establecimiento Tipográfico y Litográfico de Luciano Mége, 1859 River islands of Uruguay Birdwatching sites in Uruguay Islands of the Río de la Plata Islands of the Uruguay River Geography of Colonia Department {{island-stub