The San Javier River ( Spanish, Río San Javier) is an

anabranch An anabranch is a section of a river or stream that diverts from the main channel or stem of the watercourse and rejoins the main stem downstream. Local anabranches can be the result of small islands in the watercourse. In larger anabranches, th ...

(arm or side channel) of the

Paraná River The Paraná River ( es, Río Paraná, links=no , pt, Rio Paraná, gn, Ysyry Parana) is a river in south-central South America, running through Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina for some ."Parana River". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Br ...

in the

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 Santa Fe,

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 ...

Course

The lower Paraná River is highly

braided Braided is a musical group consisting of Casey LeBlanc, Ashley Leitão, and Amber Fleury, who all competed on the third season of '' Canadian Idol'' in 2005. They are the third music group to come from an Idol show in the world, after Young Div ...

, with a complex system of channels on either side of the

main stem In hydrology, a mainstem (or trunk) is "the primary downstream segment of a river, as contrasted to its tributaries". Water enters the mainstem from the river's drainage basin, the land area through which the mainstem and its tributaries flow.. A ...

. Superficially, the San Javier River seems to be a

tributary A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drainage ...

river originating in the Paraná River's

alluvial plain An alluvial plain is a largely flat landform created by the deposition of sediment over a long period of time by one or more rivers coming from highland regions, from which alluvial soil forms. A floodplain is part of the process, being the sma ...

. But it is linked by several channels to the main stem Paraná, from which it probably receives most of its water. From its primary source on the Paraná River, about south of

Reconquista The ' (Spanish, Portuguese and Galician for "reconquest") is a historiographical construction describing the 781-year period in the history of the Iberian Peninsula between the Umayyad conquest of Hispania in 711 and the fall of the Nasrid ...

, the San Javier flows generally south, parallel to the Paraná. It passes by San Javier and

Helvecia Helvecia is a town (''comuna'') in the center-east of the , on the San Javier River (which empties promptly into the Paraná River). It had about 8,500 inhabitants at the and it is the head town of the Garay Department. Helvecia lies north-nor ...

. Its

mouth In animal anatomy, the mouth, also known as the oral cavity, or in Latin cavum oris, is the opening through which many animals take in food and issue vocal sounds. It is also the cavity lying at the upper end of the alimentary canal, bounded on ...

does not discharge directly into the Paraná River but rather into several channels near Santa Rosa de Calchines. These not only connect to the main stem Paraná but also to other side channels that continue down the west side of the Paraná's floodplain and into the Laguna Setúbal system. Like the San Javier River, the Laguna Setúbal system superficially appears to be a tributary system, but it is cross-cut by channels linked to the main stem Paraná. The mouth of the San Javier River is located at , about northeast of Santa Fe City, the provincial capital. Its primary source, on the Paraná River, is located at .Source coordinates determined using an Instituto Geográfico Milita
map of Santa Fe Province

Google Maps Google Maps is a web mapping platform and consumer application offered by Google. It offers satellite imagery, aerial photography, street maps, 360° interactive panoramic views of streets ( Street View), real-time traffic conditions, and rou ...

, an
GeoLocator
/ref> The distance from its source to its mouth is about , over which it flows in a highly

meander A meander is one of a series of regular sinuous curves in the channel of a river or other watercourse. It is produced as a watercourse erodes the sediments of an outer, concave bank ( cut bank) and deposits sediments on an inner, convex bank ...

ing and braided course.

History

The San Javier, formerly known as Quiloazas River, was the cause of the abandonment of the initial site of the provincial capital at Cayastá, 85 km upstream from the current one, due to the

erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location where it is deposited. Erosion is distin ...

it caused (and still causes) on the ravine where the town was built.

References

* {{in lang, es Seminario Internacional de Ciudades Históricas Iberoamericanas (Toledo, 2001)
''Las ciudades históricas como sitios integrales''
Rivers of Argentina Rivers of Santa Fe Province Tributaries of the Paraná River

Course

History

See also

References