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Department of Malargüe
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*General Information
*Tourist Attractions
*Parties and Celebrations
*History Review
*Distances
*Flora and Fauna
*Hydrography
*Museums
General Information:
Area.......…………….. 41.317 km2
Population…….……… 23.020 habitantes
Density……………….. 0.6 hab/km2 |
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The Department of Malargüe is located in the extreme Southwest
portion of the Province of Mendoza, 421 kilometres from the
Capital City. It has the greatest surface among the eighteen
departments that form the Province and it is limited in the West
by the Republic of Chile, in the East by the province of La
Pampa, in the South by the province of Neuquén, and in the North
and Northeast by the department of San Rafael.
The climate there is characterized by cold winters in the
western portion of the department, which is bordered by the
Andes Mountain; and in the rest of the territory, it is desert
and semi desert. This originates a particular landscape, where
there are forests of alpatacos between the dunes, since they are
irrigated by rivers and cascades or by the subterranean water.
 The
volcanic region of Payunia is a set of plateaus and elevated
plains of volcanic origin, endorheic river basins, depressions,
salt mines and dunes, with basaltic outcrops and little
vegetation. It receives the name Payún because of the volcano of
3,680 metres.
The economy of Malargüe is based on the production of goat,
potatoes seeds and garlic, and an intense tourist activity.
In Malargüe there is one of the locations of the Observatory
Pierre Auger, the other is in Utah, in the United States. It is
an international scientific project to discover the origin of
ultra-high energy cosmic rays. In this observatory, there will
be measured the cascades of particle that appear whenever a
cosmic ray hits against molecules of the upper atmosphere. Thus,
it will be possible to determine the energy, direction of
arrival and the nature of the cosmic rays of the highest
observable energies.
In addition, Malargüe has the “Thesaurus” Convention and
Exhibition Centre with capacity for a thousand people. It has a
total surface of 1500 square metres, divided between a tunnel of
entailment and two main bodies.
The name “Malargüe” is a derivation of the Mapuche words “malal”
(bards, species of corral which takes advantage of the small
elevations of the land surrounded by a cut, where animals used
to be locked up) and “hue” (place).
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