Rio Grande (redirected from Rio Bravo)

Rio Grande, city, Brazil

Rio Grande (rē` grän`dĭ), city (1991 pop. 172,422), Rio Grande do Sul state, S Brazil, on the Rio Grande River at the outlet of the Lagoa dos Patos (a tidal lagoon) to the Atlantic Ocean. It is an important outport for the city of Pôrto Alegre on the northern end of the lagoon. Rio Grande has oil refineries and factories producing foodstuffs, leather, and tires. The city was founded in 1737.

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Rio Grande, river, Brazil

Rio Grande, name of several rivers of Brazil. The largest rises in S Minas Gerais state, SE Brazil, and flows c.650 mi (1,050 km) NW to the Paranaíba River, with which it forms the Paraná River. Its lower course forms part of São Paulo's northern boundary. The huge Furnas Dam with its reservoir near Passos, Minas Gerais, serves the industrial heart of Brazil with hydroelectricity.

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Rio Grande, river, United States and Mexico

Rio Grande (rē`ō grănd, rē`ō grän`dē), river, c.1,885 mi (3,000 km) long, rising in SW Colo. in the San Juan Mts. and flowing south through the middle of N.Mex., past Albuquerque, then coursing generally southeast as the border between Texas and Mexico, making a big bend (see Big Bend National Park), and eventually emptying into the Gulf of Mexico at Brownsville, Tex., and Matamoros, Mex. Other paired towns along the river are Laredo, Tex., and Nuevo Laredo, Mex. and El Paso, Tex., and Juárez, Mex. The river, known in Mexico as Río Bravo del Norte, is unnavigable except near its mouth, but is now often reduced to a trickle there by drought and the drawing off of water upstream.

The Rio Grande is an important source of internationally regulated irrigation, a use it has long been put to. Pueblos were thriving on its banks N of Las Cruces, N.Mex., and the Native Americans were practicing irrigation of the arid country, when Spanish explorer Francisco Vásquez de Coronado arrived (1540). Today, dams on the Rio Grande are used for irrigation, flood control, and regulation of the river flow. Elephant Butte Dam (completed 1916) and Caballo Dam (completed 1938) in New Mexico create reservoirs that serve large areas. Further downstream N of Del Rio, Tex., is the Amistad Dam (completed 1969); it is 6 mi (9.7 km) long and impounds a huge reservoir; Amistad National Recreation Area is there. Below Laredo are Falcon Dam (completed 1954) and its large reservoir. Near the mouth of the Rio Grande is the irrigation-dependent citrus-fruit and truck-farm region commonly called the Rio Grande Valley and developed principally in the 1920s. An agreement between the United States and Mexico in 1944 provided for future distribution of the river's water, but in drought years the amount reaching the United States is often less than what is called for under the treaty.

Shifts in the river's channel have led to border disputes between the United States and Mexico. Parts of its bed have been stabilized by canalization, and an international border commission mediates disputes. The 114-year controversy over the location of the border at El Paso was finally settled in 1968 when the water of the Rio Grande was diverted into a concrete channel. A 191-mi (307-km) section of the river on the American shore below Big Bend National Park is protected as the

Rio Grande Wild and Scenic River (see National Parks and Monuments, table).

Bibliography

See R. E. Riecker, Rio Grande Rift (1979); P. Horgan, Great River: The Rio Grande in North American History (2 vol., 1984).

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Rio Grande

 in Mexico Río Bravo

River, North America. One of the longest rivers of North America, it flows 1,900 mi (3,000 km) from its sources in the Rocky Mountains of southwestern Colorado, U.S., to the Gulf of Mexico. It rises high in the San Juan Mountains and flows generally south, passing southeast and forming the entire border between Texas and Mexico. The earliest European settlements were along the lower course of the river in the 16th century, but many of the Pueblo Indian settlements of New Mexico date from before the Spanish conquest. During the Spanish period, the middle and upper portions were called the Río del Norte, and the lower course was called the Río Bravo. It is a major source of irrigation. At the U.S.-Mexican border, it defines the edge of Big Bend National Park, Texas.

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Rio Grande

1. a river in North America, rising in SW Colorado and flowing southeast to the Gulf of Mexico, forming the border between the US and Mexico. Length: about 3030 km (1885 miles)

2. a port in SE Brazil, in SE Rio Grande do Sul state: serves as the port for Porto Alegre. Pop.: 188 000 (2005 est.))

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Rio Grande 

a city in southeastern Brazil, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. Population, 116,800 (1970, including suburbs). Rio Grande has a railroad station. The city is a port at the entrance of Lagoa dos Patos, which was erroneously thought to be a large river by the Portuguese (hence the city’s name). Its freight turnover totaled 3.1 million tons in 1971. Rice, meat products, wool, and rawhide are exported. The food-processing industry is represented by beer brewing and meat and fish canning. Other industries include the tobacco, leather-and-foot-wear, and chemical industries. Rio Grande was founded in 1737.

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Rio Grande 

(in Mexico, Río Bravo del Norte), a river in southwestern North America, in the USA and Mexico. It is 2,880 km long and drains an area of 570,000 sq km. The river originates in the San Juan Mountains of the Rocky Mountains system. It flows primarily across dry plateaus, sometimes passing through narrow canyons, and empties into the Gulf of Mexico. From its mouth to El Paso, the river forms the boundary between the USA and Mexico.

The Rio Grande is at its highest level from September through November, when there is heavy flooding. The river dries up almost completely in some sections during the summer. It has a mean flow rate of 570 cu m per sec. No more than 3 percent of the flow reaches the mouth because the water is used for irrigation. The USA and Mexico have signed an agreement on the use of the Rio Grande for irrigation and power engineering; the Elephant Butte Reservoir, which is 150 km above El Paso, and the Falcón Reservoir, which is 110 km below Laredo, have been constructed on the river. Albuquerque, El Paso, and Laredo are located on the Rio Grande in the USA, and Ciudad Juárez, and Neuvo Laredo are located on the river in Mexico.