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River

Reventazón River

145 km from source to mouth · Costa Rica.

Costa RicaCosta RicaFlows into Caribbean Sea2nd longest in Costa Rica

Follow the riverMonth by month

SourceMouth
The river and every tributary in its basin, drawn from RiverATLAS (CC BY 4.0).

In numbers

Length

145km

Average flow

220m³/s

Basin

2,950km²

Drop

2,179m

from 2,188 m to 9 m

Country

1

The journey

From source to mouth

145 km of river and 5 stops on the way: 2 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.

2,188 m9 m
Sourceat 2,188 m0 km
Orosi4,350 people34 km
Lake Cachí0.4 km²43 km
Tucurrique2,697 people58 km
Atirro Rivertributary79 km
Reventazón Dam102 km
Caribbean Seaat 9 m145 km
050100145 km
  1. 0 kmSourceat 2,188 m
  2. 34 kmOrosi4,350 people
  3. 43 kmLake Cachí0.4 km²
  4. 58 kmTucurrique2,697 people
  5. 79 kmAtirro Rivertributary
  6. 102 kmReventazón Dam
  7. 145 kmCaribbean Seaat 9 m

Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.

River in Costa Rica

At the mouth it carries 222 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 11 seconds. It drops from 2,188 m to 9 m, 15 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 2,950 km², about the size of LU. 451,000 people live in it. Highest water: July and December. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.

Read more on Wikipedia

Where to start

Reventazón River, month by month

Highest water: July and December

Best months to visit: from January to March, June and August.

220
24°261 mmJan
140
24°188 mmFeb
89
26°157 mmMar
100
26°214 mmApr
170
26°322 mmMay
210
25°343 mmJun
270
25°413 mmJul
250
25°340 mmAug
190
25°242 mmSep
190
24°312 mmOct
250
24°388 mmNov
290
24°413 mmDec
Water (estimated flow)Air (average) Rain (mm)Best months

From about 89 m³/s in the lowest month to 290 m³/s in the highest. An estimate: the monthly flow is modelled from the lowest and highest months of WaterGAP (RiverATLAS, 1971–2000) and the rain and snow along the river (WorldClim). Dams change the real rhythm. The chip is the average air temperature; below it, the month's rain.

Plan the trip

Plan the trip: boat trips, a bed by the river, a car

Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.

The basin

Reventazón River: the basin in numbers

2,725 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.

Free-flowingDams upstream can hold only 0.7% of a year's flow: the river still keeps its natural rhythm.
  • 451,000people live in the basin
  • 165/km²people per km²
  • 1,077maverage altitude of the basin
  • 3,297mmof rain a year (basin average)
  • 20.4°Caverage air temperature
  • 11%protected areas
  • 0.1km³held in reservoirs

What covers the basin

  • 76% Forest
  • 3% Cropland
  • 47% Pasture
  • 8% Towns and cities

RiverATLAS (HydroATLAS v1.0, CC BY 4.0): land cover, people, protected areas, glaciers and dams over the whole basin upstream of the mouth.

Along the river

Reventazón River: what you find on the way

  • 4DamsRepresa Angostura, Reventazón and 2 more
  • 1WaterfallsCatarata

From OpenStreetMap, within 1.5 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.

Cross-checked with our atlases

Reventazón River in our other atlases

What our sister atlases know about the waterfalls on this river, the lakes it flows through, the beaches at its mouth, the mountains where it rises and the islands off its mouth.

  • 1lake on its wayLakeyas
  • 7mountains at the sourcePeakyas

Lakes and reservoirs (1)

Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas

  1. Lake Cachíkm 380.4km²

Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗

Mountains at the source (7)

Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas

  1. Cerro de la Muerte8.4 km away3,451m
  2. Cerro Sákira6.8 km away
  3. Cerro Páramo10 km away
  4. Cerro Frío10 km away
  5. Cerro La Asunción7.6 km away
  6. Cerro Cuerisí14 km away
  7. Cerro Buena Vista10 km away

Open Peakyas ↗

From space

The source and the mouth, seen from orbit

Reventazón River: satellite view of the source
The source14 km across
Reventazón River: satellite view of the mouth
The mouth10 km across

Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 by EOX IT Services GmbH (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2016), CC BY 4.0. The glowing line is the river as drawn by RiverATLAS.

Photos

Reventazón River in pictures

Costa Rica - Caribbean Sea - Parismina (Eco-Tourism) - 06
World Wide Gifts · CC BY-SA 2.0

Tributaries

Where it flows, and what flows into it

Tributaries (1)

Also: Atirro River

Where these numbers come from

Name, length, placesWikidata (Q11997691) · CC0
Course, profile, basinRiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed along the river network from the point given by Wikidata
FlowWaterGAP (RiverATLAS), 1971–2000 · CC BY 4.0
Climate along the riverWorldClim (RiverATLAS), 1970–2000 · CC BY 4.0
Towns, bridges, damsWikidata · CC0; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0
Along the river© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
ImagesEOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons
Our other atlasesLakeyas, Peakyas — Wikidata · CC0; © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0; HydroLAKES · CC BY 4.0; NOAA OISST

Every source and licence is on the data sources page.

The family

Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers or canyons?

Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.

beachesCoastyaFind your beach: sea temperature, sun and swimming month by month.Visit
lakesLakeyasEvery lake on Earth: water temperature, ice, depth and the shore.Coming soonVisit
mountainsPeakyasEvery summit in 3D: summit weather, the 0 °C line, huts and trails.Visit
waterfallsCascadyasEvery waterfall: height, flow month by month and when it roars.Coming soonVisit
islandsIslandyasEvery island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.Coming soonVisit
riversRiveryasEvery river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.You are here
canyonsCanyonyasEvery canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Coming soonVisit