Río de la Plata

The Río de la Plata (called River Plate in British English) is a river in Argentina and Uruguay. It is an estuary made from the Uruguay River and the Paraná River. These rivers are on the border between Argentina and Uruguay. It is about 290 kilometres (180 miles) long.

Río de la Plata
Mouth	Atlantic Ocean
Length	290 km (180 mi) 4,876 km (3,030 mi) including the Paraná

The Río de la Plata widens from about 2 kilometres (1.2 miles) at the inner part to about 220 km (140 mi) at its mouth. Buenos Aires is on its western shore. Montevideo is on its northern shores.

The Río de la Plata is home for the loggerhead sea turtle, green sea turtle, leatherback sea turtle, the rare La Plata dolphin, and many species of fish.

Battle of the River Plate (1939)

The first naval battle of the Second World War was fought near the River Plata. The Kriegsmarine "pocket battleship" Admiral Graf Spee was engaged by the Royal Navy cruisers, HMS Exeter, Ajax and Achilles off the estuary of the River Plate in December 1939.

The German ship retired up the estuary with a crippled fuel system and put into port at Montevideo. A few days later, rather than fight outgunned against the British, she was scuttled in the estuary. This engagement was part of the early Battle of the Atlantic skirmishes.

Río De La Plata Media

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  Río de la Plata in Argentina

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  Satellite image of the Paraná and Uruguay rivers emptying into the Río de la Plata. Due to the relatively calm surface of the estuary and the angle of the Sun relative to the satellite, the current of the river flowing out into the Atlantic is visible.

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  The Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area runs along the southern coast of the Río de la Plata.

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  The battle of Punta Colares, by José Murature.

Other websites

• Is an old map from 1616 showing the Río de la Plata