Tercero River

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The Tercero River (Spanish for third), also known as Ctalamochita, is the river of the Córdoba Province with the most important water flow (27.17 m³/s). It starts near the Calamuchita Valley, becomes navigable for boats of small to medium sizes as it flows through the plains, and completes 307 km before reaching the Carcarañá River.

It has its origin near the Champaquí hill, in an area of annual precipitations of between 600 and 1000 mm, near the Calamuchita Valley. Leaving the valley it reaches the plains where there have been constructed three dams, called Cerro Pelado, Embalse Río Tercero (with 54.3 km² built in 1936) and Piedras Moras, which serve as flow regulators, and hydroelectricity production. But the lakes of the dams are also used for tourism and recreation; water sports and fishing.

The river the incursions into the wet Pampas area, which has an average rainfall of 730mm per year. When it joins the Saladillo River (who has the Cuarto River as a tributary), it forms the Carcarañá River.

Among the most important cities on the path of the Tercero are Río Tercero, Villa María, Villa Nueva, Bell Ville and Leones.

The word Ctalamochita (from which the term Calamuchita derives) seams to be a mixture of the Native American term ctala or tala, meaning "important tree", and a deformation of the Spanish mucho or muchito, finally meaning "area of many trees". The name Tercero became more common since the 18th century, being the third of five rivers counting from Córdoba city. Of them, the Tercero is the only one to reach, indirectly, the Paraná River being therefore a tributary to the Río de la Plata Basin.