Argentina: Physical Geography

Argentina occupies the southern reaches of South America, stretching roughly 3,800 kilometers from the subtropical north to the sub-Antarctic tip of Tierra del Fuego. Covering about 2.8 million square kilometers, it is the second-largest country in South America and the eighth-largest in the world, bordered by the towering Andes to the west and the South Atlantic Ocean to the east. This span gives the country one of the most varied physical landscapes in the Americas, ranging from subtropical wetlands to glacial fields.

The country divides into several broad physical regions. The Pampas, a vast expanse of fertile flatlands in the east-central interior, form the agricultural heartland and are among the flattest plains in the world. To the north lies the Gran Chaco, a low, largely level plain of scrubland and seasonal wetlands shared with Paraguay and Bolivia. Mesopotamia, between the Paraná and Uruguay rivers, is a humid lowland region, while the arid, Andean province of Cuyo lies to the west. In the south, Patagonia extends across a windswept tableland of steppe and plateau toward the southern tip of the continent.

The Andes mountain range runs the length of Argentina's western border and contains Aconcagua, which at roughly 6,960 meters is the highest peak in both the Western and Southern Hemispheres. By contrast, the Laguna del Carbón in southern Patagonia, at about 105 meters below sea level, is the lowest point on the South American continent. The Paraná, Argentina's longest and largest river, joins the Uruguay River to form the Río de la Plata estuary, while the Colorado and Negro rivers drain the Patagonian interior toward the Atlantic.