The San Juan River is, together with the Jáchal, an important river in Argentina's

San Juan San Juan, Spanish for Saint John (disambiguation), Saint John, most commonly refers to: * San Juan, Puerto Rico * San Juan, Argentina * San Juan, Metro Manila, a highly urbanized city in the Philippines San Juan may also refer to: Places Arge ...

province. Both join the Desaguadero/

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

system that ends at the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

Course

The river starts near the town of Calingasta, in the southwest of the province, from the confluence of three main rivers: the Calingasta River, the Castaño Viejo River, and the

Río de los Patos The Río de los Patos is a river of Argentina. Climate The Valle de los Patos Superior has a dry-summer subarctic climate The subarctic climate (also called subpolar climate, or boreal climate) is a continental climate with long, cold (often ver ...

. These rivers are born at an altitude of about

above mean sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of a location's vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) in reference to a vertical datum based on a historic mean sea level. In geodesy, it is formalized as orthometric height. The zero level ...

in the west and southwest of the province (in contrast, the Jáchal receives its

Andean The Andes ( ), Andes Mountains or Andean Mountain Range (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long and wide (widest between 18°S ...

tributaries from the north of the province). From Calingasta the river flows eastwards feeding the Los Caracoles, Punta Negra and Quebrada de Ullum Dams (''Embalse Quebrada de Ullum'') located near

city, from which it continues south-eastwards receiving a few more tributaries, including the

Mendoza River The Mendoza River is a river in the provinces of Argentina, province of Mendoza Province, Mendoza, Argentina.

, to later join the Desaguadero River near the ''Salina Pampa de las Latas'' (or ''Salina Bermejo''), at the common border of the provinces of San Juan, Mendoza and San Luis. The river has an average flow of . Its course is long, and its

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land in which all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, ...

covers an area of . The Ullum Dam is AMSL with a reservoir covering an area of and a volume of around . The upper course of the river is used for water sports such as

rafting Rafting and whitewater rafting are recreational outdoor activities which use an inflatable raft to navigate a river or other body of water. This is often done on whitewater or different degrees of rough water. Dealing with risk is often a ...

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment (Freshwater ecosystem, freshwater or Marine ecosystem, marine), but may also be caught from Fish stocking, stocked Body of water, ...

, and

windsurfing Windsurfing is a wind-propelled water sport that is a combination of sailing and surfing. It is also referred to as "sailboarding" and "boardsailing", and emerged in the late 1960s from the Californian aerospace and surf culture. Windsurfing gain ...

. Along its entire length, the San Juan River is heavily used for

irrigation Irrigation (also referred to as watering of plants) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has bee ...

External links

References

Rivers of Argentina Rivers of San Juan Province, Argentina {{Argentina-river-stub