Loa

LOA

On drawings, abbr. for “length overall.”

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Architecture and Construction. Copyright © 2003 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Loa

 

a river in northern Chile. Length, approximately 400 km. The Loa River rises in the Cordillera Occidental, crossing the Atacama Desert in its middle course, and empties into the Pacific Ocean. It is fed primarily by subsoil water; fluctuations in the flow are negligible. The average water discharge at the river’s emergence from the mountains is 6 cu m per sec, and in the lower course, 4 cu m per sec. It is used for irrigation, and springs in the basin are the main source of water for the cities of Chuquicamata, Calama, and Antofagasta.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.