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Juan Díaz de Solís discovers the Río de la Plata

When
1516
Where
Río de la Plata estuary
Episodes
1

In 1516, Spanish navigator Juan Díaz de Solís explored the Río de la Plata estuary while searching for a passage to the Pacific. He named it Mar Dulce and sailed upriver to the confluence of the Uruguay and Paraná rivers.

Episodes

  1. 1516 · Río de la Plata estuarySolís explores the Río de la Plata

    Juan Díaz de Solís traversed the estuary in 1516, naming it Mar Dulce and sailing upriver to the confluence of the Uruguay and Paraná rivers.

Background and detail

Background. The Río de la Plata is a large estuary formed by the confluence of the Uruguay and Paraná rivers, emptying into the Atlantic Ocean. It has been described variously as a river, estuary, gulf, or marginal sea depending on the geographer.

Exploration. Juan Díaz de Solís, a 16th-century navigator, led an expedition of three ships and 70 men from Sanlúcar de Barrameda in October 1515. In 1516, he traversed the estuary searching for a passage between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

People involved

Sources

  1. Río de la Plata Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-05
  2. Juan Díaz de Solís Wikipedia, revision of 2025-12-30

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.