River
Santa Cruz River
385 km from source to mouth · Argentina.
ArgentinaFlows into Atlantic Ocean
In numbers
Length
385km
Average flow
710m³/s
Basin
28,056km²
Drop
179m
from 179 m to 0 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
385 km of river and 4 stops on the way: 1 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmArgentino Lakeat 179 m
- 0 kmArgentino Lake1,320 km²
- 30 kmLaguna Grande0.4 km²
- 348 kmIsla Pavón
- 351 kmComandante Luis Piedrabuena9,278 people
- 385 kmAtlantic Oceanat 0 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Argentina
At the mouth it carries 711 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 3.5 seconds. It drops from 179 m to 0 m, 0.5 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 28,056 km², about the size of GQ. 12,000 people live in it. Highest water: from June to July; lowest: from November to February. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- Comandante Luis PiedrabuenaLargest city on its banks · 9,278 people
- Piloto Civil Norberto Fernández International Airport (RGL)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 183 km from the cityCar hire at RGL airport (Rio Gallegos)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water3 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From December to FebruaryThe best months to visit
Santa Cruz River, month by month
Highest water: from June to July
Lowest water: from November to February. Best months to visit: from December to February.
From about 640 m³/s in the lowest month to 820 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
Santa Cruz River: the basin in numbers
26,959 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 12,000people live in the basin
- 0/km²people per km²
- 656maverage altitude of the basin
- 533mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 5.6°Caverage air temperature
- 29%protected areas
- 10.1%covered by lakes
- 14%glaciers
- 1%permafrost
What covers the basin
- 6% Forest
- 68% Pasture
- 14% Ice
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
Santa Cruz River: what you find on the way
- 2Ferry piers
- 1Marinas
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.1 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Santa Cruz 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.
2lakes on its wayLakeyas
1mountain at the sourcePeakyas
Lakes and reservoirs (2)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Argentino Lakekm 0 · 150 m deep1,320km²
- Laguna Grandekm 280.4km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
Mountains at the source (1)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Cerro Pastoso11 km away
From space
The source and the mouth, seen from orbit
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
Santa Cruz River in pictures
ChileWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q1478566) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Course, profile, basin | RiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed from the source to the mouth given by Wikidata |
| Flow | WaterGAP (RiverATLAS), 1971–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Climate along the river | WorldClim (RiverATLAS), 1970–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Towns, bridges, dams | Wikidata · CC0; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0 |
| Along the river | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Our other atlases | Lakeyas, 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.
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Every summit in 3D: summit weather, the 0 °C line, huts and trails.Visit 
waterfalls
Every waterfall: height, flow month by month and when it roars.Coming soonVisit 
islands
Every island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.Coming soonVisit 
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Every river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.You are here
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Every canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Coming soonVisit