The El Carrizal Dam is a dam

Dam

A dam is a barrier that impounds water or underground streams. Dams generally serve the primary purpose of retaining water, while other structures such as floodgates or levees are used to manage or prevent water flow into specific land regions. Hydropower and pumped-storage hydroelectricity are...

 on the upper-middle course of the Tunuyán River

Tunuyán River

The Tunuyán River is a river in the Argentine province of Mendoza. It is born in Mount Tupungato, in the Andes range, and flows initially to the northeast, passing by the city of Tunuyán. It is then dammed by the El Carrizal Dam, after which it turns east-southeast passing near the cities of...

, in the center-north of the province

Provinces of Argentina

Argentina is subdivided into twenty-three provinces and one autonomous city...

 of Mendoza

Mendoza Province

The Province of Mendoza is a province of Argentina, located in the western central part of the country in the Cuyo region. It borders to the north with San Juan, the south with La Pampa and Neuquén, the east with San Luis, and to the west with the republic of Chile; the international limit is...

, Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

, at 33°18′0"S 68°43′15"W, upstream from the city of Rivadavia

Rivadavia, Mendoza

Rivadavia is a city in the center-north of the province of Mendoza, Argentina. It has 52,567 inhabitants as per the , and is the head town of the Rivadavia Department...

. Its reservoir measures about 15×5 km, and its maximum water level stands at 785.5 m above the sea

Above mean sea level

The term above mean sea level refers to the elevation or altitude of any object, relative to the average sea level datum. AMSL is used extensively in radio by engineers to determine the coverage area a station will be able to reach...

, covering an area of 31.47 km². It has a maximum volume of 327 million m³.

The dam is used to regulate the flow of the Tunuyán River, which comes from glacial

Glacier

A glacier is a large persistent body of ice that forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. At least 0.1 km² in area and 50 m thick, but often much larger, a glacier slowly deforms and flows due to stresses induced by its weight...

 sources in the Andes

Andes

The Andes is the world's longest continental mountain range. It is a continual range of highlands along the western coast of South America. This range is about long, about to wide , and of an average height of about .Along its length, the Andes is split into several ranges, which are separated...

, and to irrigate

Irrigation

Irrigation may be defined as the science of artificial application of water to the land or soil. It is used to assist in the growing of agricultural crops, maintenance of landscapes, and revegetation of disturbed soils in dry areas and during periods of inadequate rainfall...

 the otherwise arid region. The reservoir is a tourist attraction and is employed for fishing

Fishing

Fishing is the activity of trying to catch wild fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping....

, windsurfing

Windsurfing

Windsurfing or sailboarding is a surface water sport that combines elements of surfing and sailing. It consists of a board usually two to four metres long, powered by the orthogonal effect of the wind on a sail. The rig is connected to the board by a free-rotating universal joint and comprises a...

, sailing

Sailing

Sailing is the propulsion of a vehicle and the control of its movement with large foils called sails. By changing the rigging, rudder, and sometimes the keel or centre board, a sailor manages the force of the wind on the sails in order to move the boat relative to its surrounding medium and...

, etc., while its shores feature camping sites and other lodging facilities.

The waters of the dam feed a hydroelectric

Hydroelectricity

Hydroelectricity is the term referring to electricity generated by hydropower; the production of electrical power through the use of the gravitational force of falling or flowing water. It is the most widely used form of renewable energy...

 power station

Power station

A power station is an industrial facility for the generation of electric energy....

, which was built in 1971 and has an installed power generation capacity of 17 MW

Watt

The watt is a derived unit of power in the International System of Units , named after the Scottish engineer James Watt . The unit, defined as one joule per second, measures the rate of energy conversion.-Definition:...

.