Physical geography of the basin

Abstract

The Paraná River drains a continental-sized basin formed by several different, even contrasting, regions. Such regions cover areas with hundreds of thousands of square kilometers in extension. The Middle Paraná is a type of fluvial synthesis of a huge territory covering an area of 2,600,000 to 2,800,000 km2 (according to different criteria of definition), which includes a large diversity of rainforests, mountain deserts, and savannas. Basically, however, the fluvial net of the Paraná basin can be considered as a great machine of continental size that collects, modifies, and transports water, nutrients and other inorganic and organic products from tropical environments to the middle latitudes of the South Atlantic Ocean.