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River

Gallegos

River

Gallegos is a mapped river in the YearMaps hydrographic index. River courses organise settlement, agriculture and frontier-making more durably than any political boundary, and this reach is indexed against the dams, lakes and cities within its catchment.

Feature Class
River
Coordinates
-51.82°, -70.87°
7.0
Coordinates: 51.8217° S, 70.8684° WCountry: ArgentinaOpenStreetMap ↗
Gallegos, Argentina
Gallegos. Image via Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on the file page).

About Gallegos

The Gallegos River (Spanish: Río Gallegos) is a river in the Argentine province of Santa Cruz, on whose estuary lies Río Gallegos city, capital of the province. Given that its basin reaches only the fringes of the Andes mountains it classifies as a sub-Andean river.

There is contradicting information on where river is actually formed. According to one source it forms at the confluence of the rivers Rubens and Penitente. Yet according to another source Rubens River is just a tributary of Penitente River and Gallegos River originates further downstream at the confluence of the rivers Penitentes and Turbio. After traveling 180 kilometres (112 mi) Gallegos River reaches the Atlantic Coast.

On its way east, after crossing a 200-kilometre (120 mi) wide glaciated canyon, it meets the tributaries Turbio, Cóndor, and Zurdo. In spite of this, the river's stream can be drastically reduced during the dry season.

The river, named after Blasco Gallegos, one of the pilots of Ferdinand Magellan's expedition of 1520, is popular for fly fishing for brown trout, principally by tourists.

Part of the drainage basin of the river lies in Chile's Magallanes Region.

Encyclopedic summary adapted from Wikipedia: Gallegos River (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Gallegos: Key Facts

Key facts about Gallegos
Length300 km
Average discharge15 m³/s
Drainage basin9,554 km²
MouthAtlantic Ocean
Drainage systemGallegos Basin

Facts from Wikidata Q474602 (CC0).

Major River Dossiers

Hand-written studies of the great river systems of history.

Connected Reaches

Nearby watercourses in the same drainage network.

Water Bodies in the Catchment

Settlements Along the Reach

Hydraulic Infrastructure Nearby

Surrounding Terrain

Gallegos: Quick Answers

Where is Gallegos?
Gallegos is located in Argentina and Chile, at 51.8217° S, 70.8684° W.
Are there dams on the Gallegos?
No dam on the Gallegos is recorded in the YearMaps dam index, which covers major structures only.