The River Piratini (Rio Piratini) is a Brazilian
river
A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside Subterranean river, caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of ...
in the southern
state
State most commonly refers to:
* State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory
**Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country
**Nation state, a ...
of
Rio Grande do Sul
Rio Grande do Sul (, ; ; "Great River of the South") is a Federative units of Brazil, state in the South Region, Brazil, southern region of Brazil. It is the Federative units of Brazil#List, fifth-most populous state and the List of Brazilian s ...
. Until 1864 it marked, for most of its course, the accepted frontier between
Uruguay
Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of 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 the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...
and Brazil.
The river rises at the
watershed
Watershed may refer to:
Hydrology
* Drainage divide, the line that separates neighbouring drainage basins
* Drainage basin, an area of land where surface water converges (North American usage)
Music
* Watershed Music Festival, an annual country ...
between the
Río de la Plata Basin
The Río de la Plata basin (, ), more often called the River Plate basin in scholarly writings, sometimes called the Platine basin or Platine region, is the Hydrography, hydrographical area in South America that drains to the Río de la Plata. I ...
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 oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for se ...
, separated from the ocean only by the
São Gonçalo Channel 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 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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