Villa San Agustín

History

Since the 16th century, the Cuyan territory was inhabited by indigenous communities, among which the Huarpes, the Capayanes, the Olongastas and the Yacampis (a Diaguita group of La Rioja).

Geography

San Agustin del Valle Fertíl is located 250 kilometers northeast of the city of San Juan. East of the Province of San Juan, the Department of Valle Fertíl is lying on the eastern slope of the Sierras Pampeanas. Along the valley, there is a lush vegetation of great variety and beauty, a different picture to the rest of the context of the province The climate is semiarid with moderate temperatures. It has a lot of rainfall on average and long sunshine hours characterize summer. It counts 3,900 inhabitants (INDEC, 2001), which represents an increase of 33.2% compared to the 2,928 inhabitants (INDEC, 1991) of previous census The seismicity of the area of Cuyo (west central Argentina) is common, but of low intensity, and a seismic silence means severe earthquakes every 20 years in different random areas. ; 1861 earthquake : Even if such catastrophic geologic activity occurs since prehistoric ages, the earthquake of March 20, 1861 marked an important milestone in the history of Argentine seismic events, since it was the strongest recorded and documented in the country. From that, policy of the successive municipal governments has been taking extreme care, restricting construction regulations. Moreover, with the 1944 San Juan earthquake of January 15, 1944, the government of San Juan declared the state of severe seismic activity of the region. The Day of Civil Defense was institutionalized by a decree in order to remember the earthquake that destroyed the city of Caucete on November 23, 1977, and made more than 40,000 people homeless. They were not ground fault records, and the most noticeable effect of the earthquake was the extensive area of liquefaction (possibly thousands of square kilometers). The most dramatic effect of liquefaction was observed in the city,…

Most-observed species

• Spot-winged Pigeon

  Patagioenas maculosa (Temminck, 1813) · Aves
  115
• Great Kiskadee

  Pitangus sulphuratus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  110
• Rufous Hornero

  Furnarius rufus (Gmelin, 1788) · Aves
  108
• Rufous-collared Sparrow

  Zonotrichia capensis (P.L.S.Müller, 1776) · Aves
  100
• Chiguanco Thrush

  Turdus chiguanco Orbigny & Lafresnaye, 1837 · Aves
  96
• Turkey Vulture

  Cathartes aura (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  90
• Monk Parakeet

  Myiopsitta monachus (Boddaert, 1783) · Aves
  85
• White-tipped Plantcutter

  Phytotoma rutila Vieillot, 1818 · Aves
  85

Most recent

• M 4.6 — 2026-01-08
  68 km S of San Agustín de Valle Fértil, Argentina
• M 4.5 — 2025-12-30
  58 km ENE of Caucete, Argentina
• M 4 — 2025-10-09
  45 km SE of San Agustín de Valle Fértil, Argentina
• M 4.9 — 2025-08-22
  40 km N of San Agustín de Valle Fértil, Argentina
• M 4.3 — 2025-03-28
  17 km SE of San Agustín de Valle Fértil, Argentina
• M 4.1 — 2025-02-24
  35 km ENE of San Martín, Argentina