Argentina,[a] officially the Argentine Republic,[b] is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of 2,780,400 km2 (1,073,500 sq mi),[B] making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourth-largest country in the Americas, and the eighth-largest country in the world. It shares the bulk of the Southern Cone with Chile to the west, and is also