
Argentina is a South American nation that makes up most of the continent's southern region. Argentina, the eighth-largest nation in the world, spans an area larger than Texas and Mexico. In addition to massive mountains, rivers, and thousands of miles of ocean shoreline, it also has vast plains, deserts, tundra, and woods. Additionally, Argentina asserts ownership of a piece of Antarctica and several South Atlantic islands, notably the British-controlled Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas). Argentina is shaped like an inverted triangle, with the base at the top. It is around 880 miles (1,420 km) long from east to west, and from the subtropical north to the subantarctic south, it is about 2,360 miles (3,800 km) broad. The nation is bordered to the south and west by Chile, to the north by Bolivia and Paraguay, and to the east by Brazil, Uruguay, and the Atlantic Ocean. Contrary to the remainder of the continent to the north, which is located in the tropics, Argentina is almost exclusively located inside the temperate zone of the Southern Hemisphere. Rarely do tropical air masses reach the far northern regions of Formosa and Misiones? In contrast to the frigid continental climate of comparable latitudes in North America, Argentina's southernmost regions, which reach 55° S, are primarily moderate. Because of the Pacific and Atlantic seas' ability to regulate weather patterns and keep average monthly temperatures above freezing in the winter, South America's landmass narrows so dramatically at its southern tip.