Piratini River

Piratini River
Country Brazil
Basin
Main source Rio Grande do Sul state
River mouth São Gonçalo Channel
Physical characteristics
Length 120 km (75 mi)

The River Piratini (Rio Piratini) is a Brazilian river in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul. Until 1864 it marked, for most of its course, the accepted frontier between Uruguay and Brazil.

The river rises at the watershed between the Río de la Plata Basin and the land that slopes directly to the Ocean. The headwaters are in the area of Jóia, from where the river’s 120 km (75 mile) trajectory runs almost all the way to the Atlantic, separated from the ocean only by the São Gonçalo Channel and the associated lagoons on the coastal frontier separating Brazil from Uruguay.

The Piratini’s principal tributaries are the Santanta Stream (aroyo Santana) on the right bank and the Iytuina and Capivras Streams (arroyos Ituina & de los Carpinchos]] on the left bank.

Along its course the Piratini separates the municipalities of Pedro Osório and Cerrito from one another. The two are linked by a railway bridge which, unlike the surrounding buildings, withstood a destructive flood in 1992.

The name

“Piratini” is a composite word meaning “rebellious fish” (pirá=fish; tiní=angry, rebellious etc.)

See also

References


This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 6/5/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.