home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- Geography
-
- Total area: 2,766,890 km2
-
- Land area: 2,736,690 km2
-
- Comparative area: slightly more than four times the size of
- Texas
-
- Land boundaries: 9,665 km total; Bolivia 832 km, Brazil 1,224
- km, Chile 5,150 km, Paraguay 1,880 km, Uruguay 579 km
-
- Coastline: 4,989 km
-
- Maritime claims:
-
- -- Continental shelf: 200 m (depth) or to depth of exploitation
- -- Exclusive economic zone: nm limits unknown -- Territorial
- sea: 12 nm (overflight and navigation permitted beyond 12 nm)
-
- Disputes: short section of the boundary with Uruguay is in
- dispute; short section of the boundary with Chile is
- indefinite; claims British-administered Falkland Islands (Islas
- Malvinas); claims British- administered South Georgia and the
- South Sandwich Islands; territorial claim in Antarctica
-
- Climate: mostly temperate; arid in southeast; subantarctic in
- southwest
-
- Terrain: rich plains of the Pampas in northern half, flat to
- rolling plateau of Patagonia in south, rugged Andes along
- western border
-
- Natural resources: fertile plains of the pampas, lead, zinc,
- tin, copper, iron ore, manganese, crude oil, uranium
-
- Land use: arable land 9%; permanent crops 4%; meadows and
- pastures 52%; forest and woodland 22%; other 13%; includes
- irrigated 1%
-
- Environment: Tucuman and Mendoza areas in Andes subject to
- earthquakes; pamperos are violent windstorms that can strike
- Pampas and northeast; irrigated soil degradation;
- desertification; air and water pollution in Buenos Aires
-
- Note: second-largest country in South America (after Brazil);
- strategic location relative to sea lanes between South Atlantic
- and South Pacific Oceans (Strait of Magellan, Beagle Channel,
- Drake Passage)
-
-