Santa Cruz River (Argentina)

Bridge over the Río Santa Cruz at Comandante Luis Piedra Buena

Template: Infobox River / Obsolete

The Río Santa Cruz is a river in the Argentine province of Santa Cruz in Patagonia.

The river drains the glacial lake Lago Argentino, which is in turn fed by the Rio Leona from Lake Viedma. The western part of both glacial lakes and adjacent glaciers are located in the Los Glaciares National Park.

The river flows eastwards Patagonia and ends after 385 km at Puerto Santa Cruz in the Atlantic Ocean. The Río Santa Cruz has an average discharge of 790 m³ / s and is used not only for irrigation but also for energy.

For a long time it was assumed the Río Santa Cruz was one of those valleys that were formed over a period of millions of years. Today one assumes, however, that the valley was quite fast by glacier melt. This is now also recognized for the Lake Missoula in the northwestern United States, a view that also was considered ridiculously long.