Río Paraná
| Río Paraná | ||
 Rio Paraná as part of the Rio de la Plata river system |
||
| Data | ||
| location | South America , Brazil , Paraguay , Argentina | |
| River system | Río de la Plata | |
| Drain over | Río de la Plata → Atlantic Ocean | |
| origin |
Ilha Solteira reservoir 20 ° 22 ′ 57 ″ S , 51 ° 21 ′ 59 ″ W |
|
| confluence | with the Río Uruguay to the Río de la Plata Coordinates: 33 ° 56 ′ 45 ″ S , 58 ° 24 ′ 34 ″ W 33 ° 56 ′ 45 ″ S , 58 ° 24 ′ 34 ″ W
|
|
| length | 3200 km (with Rio Grande 4880 km) | |
| Catchment area | 2,800,000 km² | |
| Outflow A Eo : 2,582,672 km² |
MQ Mq |
17,293 m³ / s 6.7 l / (s km²) |
| Left tributaries | Rio Tietê , Rio Paranapanema , Rio Iguazu | |
| Right tributaries | Río Paraguay , Río Salado | |
| Big cities | Rosario , Buenos Aires | |
| Medium-sized cities | Foz do Iguaçu , Ciudad del Este , Encarnación , Posadas , Corrientes , Paraná | |
| Navigable | Yes | |
 Paraná near Encarnación - behind it the city of Posadas |
||
The Paraná ( Guaraní Parana ) is a river in South America . It begins at the confluence of the Paranaíba and the Rio Grande at the point where the Brazilian states of Minas Gerais , São Paulo and Mato Grosso do Sul also form a triangle . After about 3200 kilometers to the south it flows together with the Río Uruguay to the 290 km long and up to 220 km wide estuary of the Río de la Plata .
The catchment area of the Paraná covers an area of around 2.8 million square kilometers up to its influence in the Rio de la Plata. For the course of the Paraná together with the longer of the two source tributaries, the 1360 km long Rio Grande, a total length of 4880 kilometers is given.
River course
Immediately after the confluence of the Paranaíba and the Rio Grande , the Paraná flows into the Ilha Solteira reservoir . In the further course of the Paraná is almost continuously dammed, so the first reservoir is followed by the Jupiá Reservoir , then a vast depression east of the Serra de Maracaju , some waterfalls , the Porto Primavera Reservoir and the Itaipú Reservoir with the associated Itaipú - Power plant a few kilometers above the confluence of the Iguazú , which shortly before flows through the Iguazú waterfalls . The river continues its southward course for 500 km and then turns west for about 300 km. Before turning south again, it flows through the Yacyretá power plant , a dam jointly built by Paraguay and Argentina. At the bend to the south, the Paraná receives its largest tributary, the Rio Paraguay .
From the city of Santa Fe the river runs more in an easterly direction with increasing branches through increasingly marshy terrain until it forms the Río de la Plata together with the Río Uruguay and flows into the Atlantic. From the mouth to Rosario it is navigable by seagoing vessels.
For several states the Paraná has the function of a border river, for example between the Brazilian states
- São Paulo and Mato Grosso do Sul - approx. 430 kilometers,
- Paraná and Mato Grosso do Sul - approx. 210 kilometers,
and the states
The last 1000 kilometers of the river are exclusively in Argentina, whereby the Paraná is also an internal border river between the Argentine provinces of Chaco , Corrientes , Entre Ríos , Santa Fe and Buenos Aires
history
Power plants and reservoirs
Looking downstream, the Paraná is dammed by the following five power plants:
| power plant | operator | Max. Power (MW) | Reservoir | Surface (km²) | Volume (km³) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ilha Solteira | CESP | 3444 | Ilha Solteira | 1195 | 21,166 |
| Engenheiro Souza Dias | CESP | 1551.2 | Jupiá | 330 | 3.353 |
| Porto Primavera | CESP | 1540 | Porto Primavera | 2250 | 20th |
| Itaipú | 14,000 | Itaipú | 1350 | 29 | |
| Yacyretá | 3100 | Yacyretá | 1600 | 21st |
In addition, there are or have been other power plant projects on Paraná, such as B. the Corpus Christi project .
See also
Web links
literature
- Colbert E. Cushing, Kenneth W. Cummins, G. Wayne Minshall: River and Stream Ecosystems of the World: With a New Introduction . University of California Press 2006, ISBN 0-520-24567-9 , pp. 257-280 ( limited online version in Google Book Search - USA )
- James R. Penn: Rivers of the World . ABC-CLIO, 2001, pp. 198-201
- Martin H. Iriondo, Juan César Paggi: The Middle Paraná River: Limnology of a Subtropical Wetland . Springer, 2007