Río Grande (''English: Big River'') is a city in

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

, on the north coast of the eastern part of the

Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego ( English: ''Big Island of the Land of Fire'') also formerly ''Isla de Xátiva'' is an island near the southern tip of South America from which it is separated by the Strait of Magellan. The western portion (61. ...

. It has a population of 98,017, and is the industrial capital of the Tierra del Fuego Province. It is located north-east of

Ushuaia Ushuaia ( , ) is the capital city, capital of Tierra del Fuego Province, Argentina, Tierra del Fuego, Antártida e Islas del Atlántico Sur Province, Argentina. With a population of 82,615 and a location below the 54th parallel south latitude, U ...

, the capital of the province. It is served by Hermes Quijada International Airport.

History

Sheep farming, as many other places in

Patagonia Patagonia () is a geographical region that includes parts of Argentina and Chile at the southern end of South America. The region includes the southern section of the Andes mountain chain with lakes, fjords, temperate rainforests, and glaciers ...

, was the main impetus for population settlements beginning in the late 19th century. Abundant rivers, the seacoast, and good

pasture Pasture (from the Latin ''pastus'', past participle of ''pascere'', "to feed") is land used for grazing. Types of pasture Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, c ...

s were some of the reasons that fueled population growth. Río Grande was founded on 11 July 1921, when the central government issued a decree recognising this locality as the "Agricultural Colony of Río Grande". In the beginning, the land was subdivided among a few families, owning large estates until the

agrarian reform Land reform (also known as agrarian reform) involves the changing of laws, regulations, or customs regarding land ownership, land use, and land transfers. The reforms may be initiated by governments, by interested groups, or by revolution. Lan ...

of 1925. Cattle raising became one of the most important economic activities in the area. In 2014, the city came into international scrutiny after a mob of some 300 vehicles blocked the escape of the support staff for the BBC Television program '' Top Gear'' after they had already been attacked with eggs and stones in

Tolhuin Tolhuin is a town in the province of Tierra del Fuego, Argentina. It has 9,879 inhabitants as per the 2022 census. It is located on the eastern shore of Lake Fagnano, in the southern part of the Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego. It is the third la ...

, on a protest that started after their car plate resembled the Falkland Islands dispute. Arriving at the river border crossing, the crew had to illegally cross the border with Chile, after the crew was temporarily expelled from the province, which their crossing was successful.

Economy

To promote industrial development, Tierra del Fuego is excluded from VAT and federal income tax. As a result, several manufacturing companies, particularly those involving electronic products, have opened factories in this city. The city's population has grown rapidly since 1980. Many people have relocated from the northern parts of Argentina and from other countries, such as Bolivia, to work in factories that offer higher wages than other provinces of Argentina and also as a result of the television set production and assembly plants opened by ITT. One of the most rapidly growing sectors is the production of laptops and

netbook A netbook is a small-sized laptop computer; they were primarily sold from 2007 until around 2013, designed mostly as a means of accessing the Internet and being significantly less expensive than regular-sized laptops. At their inception in l ...

s. These products were totally imported until 2006 but by 2010, and due to initiatives under the Kirchner administrations, 42% of the Argentine market for these goods was supplied by firms established in Río Grande and Vicente López. In April 2011,

portfolio investment Portfolio investments are investments in the form of a group (portfolio) of assets, including transactions in equity, securities, such as common stock, and debt securities, such as banknotes, bonds, and debentures. Portfolio investment cover ...

s announced that they were planning to produce over 6.9 million units made in Tierra del Fuego Province, principally in Río Grande, which means more than a half of the sold netbooks in the country.

Climate

Rio Grande's climate is strongly influenced by the ocean: generally quite cool, and sometimes very windy. It has a

subpolar oceanic climate An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate or maritime climate, is the temperate climate sub-type in Köppen classification represented as ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of continents, generally featuring co ...

(

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...

''Cfc'') bordering on a subantarctic climate very rare for the Southern Hemisphere, with cool temperatures year round. It also closely borders on a

cold semi-arid climate Cold is the presence of low temperature, especially in the atmosphere. In common usage, cold is often a subjective perception. A lower bound to temperature is absolute zero, defined as 0.00K on the Kelvin scale, an absolute thermodynamic ...

(

''BSk'') and a

tundra climate The tundra climate is a polar climate sub-type located in high latitudes and high mountains. It is classified as ET according to the Köppen climate classification. It is a climate which at least one month has an average temperature high enough ...

(

''ET''). Temperatures in the warmest months, January and February average while temperatures in the coolest month average . With a mean temperature of in the coldest month, Río Grande has the coldest mean monthly temperature among cities in Argentina. Precipitation is low at around . Also, due to its latitude, the length of the day varies tremendously across the year. Winter days can have as few as seven hours of sunlight, while summer days stretch to seventeen hours. Frost occurs throughout the year, and winter temperatures can remain below freezing for relatively long periods of time. As such, the frost free period is very short with the first date of frost being 23 February and the last date of frost being 22 November. During the summer, conditions are generally very windy and cloudy, and nights remain cold. Freak snowfalls can occur even in midsummer. The highest recorded temperature was on 4 February 2019. It is believed that this is the southernmost recorded instance where temperatures exceed . The lowest recorded temperature was on 19 July 1984.

Gallery

Image:Costa mar argentino atardecer.jpg, Río Grande at sunset Image:ARA MB326 Rio Grande Tierra del Fuego.jpg, Argentine Navy MB326 monument image:Rio_Grande-San_martin_av.jpg, San Martín Avenue

References

Notes

External links

Government website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rio Grande, Tierra Del Fuego Populated places in Tierra del Fuego Province, Argentina Cities and towns in Tierra del Fuego Populated coastal places in Argentina Populated places established in 1921 1921 establishments in Argentina Cities in Argentina