Gallegos
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°

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
| Length | 300 km |
|---|---|
| Average discharge | 15 m³/s |
| Drainage basin | 9,554 km² |
| Mouth | Atlantic Ocean |
| Drainage system | Gallegos 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.