Malargüe () is a city in the southwest part of the

province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

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 .

Etymology

The name ''Malargüe'' is a rendering of the Mapundungun name ''Malal Hue'', meaning "stone corral" or "place of corrals".

Overview

The city is located in a semi-arid area. Agriculture is focused on the production of seed potato, along with minor crops such as

alfalfa Alfalfa () (''Medicago sativa''), also called lucerne, is a perennial plant, perennial flowering plant in the legume family Fabaceae. It is cultivated as an important forage crop in many countries around the world. It is used for grazing, hay, ...

onion An onion (''Allium cepa'' , from Latin ), also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is a vegetable that is the most widely cultivated species of the genus '' Allium''. The shallot is a botanical variety of the onion which was classifie ...

and

garlic Garlic (''Allium sativum'') is a species of bulbous flowering plants in the genus '' Allium''. Its close relatives include the onion, shallot, leek, chives, Welsh onion, and Chinese onion. Garlic is native to central and south Asia, str ...

. In the past, the local industries included oil exploration and production (now almost completely deactivated) and

uranium Uranium is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Ura ...

mining. As a touristic area, Malargüe provides hotels and cabins for visitors interested in eco-tourism in the summer and skiing in the winter at the nearby resorts of

Las Leñas Las Leñas is a ski resort in Argentina, located in the western part of Mendoza Province. It has reliable powder snow and climate for extreme and off-piste skiing. Construction of the ski center began January 1983, and by July 1983, it opened wit ...

and Los Molles. The city is known for its traditional dish, the (baby goat). It hosts the annual National Festival of the Goat and the Provincial Festival of the Lamb, during the second week of January. File:Reloj del cincuentenario Malargüe.jpg, Clock tower in the city center File:Pozo de Las Animas Mendoza Argentina.jpg, Las Animas well

History

1972

On 13 October 1972 the Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 crashed in the

Andes The Andes ( ), Andes Mountains or Andean Mountain Range (; ) are the List of longest mountain chains on Earth, longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range ...

, in the municipal territory of Malargüe ().

Climate

Malargüe's climate is dry and relatively cold. It is a

semi-arid climate A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of se ...

under the

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

. Summers bring very warm days (the average high is ) and cool nights (), with sporadic thunderstorms occurring. By March or early April, frost is to be expected, and during the winter (May to September), wild fluctuations of temperature can occur: the average high is and the average low is , but northwesterly winds that blow downslope from the Andes can bring temperatures of , and extreme Antarctic outbreaks will bring periods of snow, daytime highs well below and night lows well below .

Transport and infrastructures

Transportation

Malargüe is linked to the north of Mendoza by National Route 40. This route continues south, entering

Neuquén Province Neuquén () is a Provinces of Argentina, 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 me ...

, but is only partially built and not well maintained beyond Malargüe City. Air traffic in the area (only local flights) is served by the Comodoro D. Ricardo Salomón Airport. Aerolíneas Argentinas and American Jet offer services, as of 2021, to this airport.

Astronomic and space center

Malargüe is also 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 . In Earth's atmosphe ...

, an international physics experiment searching for

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 part ...

s. The

European Space Agency The European Space Agency (ESA) is a 23-member International organization, international organization devoted to space exploration. With its headquarters in Paris and a staff of around 2,547 people globally as of 2023, ESA was founded in 1975 ...

began construction of a deep space ground station 30 km south of Malargüe in 2010.ESA to build its third deep space ground station in Argentina
/ref> Malargüe Station became operational in early 2013 and is the third 35m dish in its

ESTRACK The European Space Tracking (ESTRACK) network consists of a number of ground-based space-tracking stations belonging to the European Space Agency (ESA), and operated by the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany. The st ...

network.

References

External links

*
Municipality of Malargüe
— Official website.
Pierre Auger Observatory
{{DEFAULTSORT:Malargue Populated places in Mendoza Province Uranium mines Mining in Argentina Cities in Argentina