The Amazon River in South America is the second longest [2] river in the world and by far the largest by waterflow with an average discharge greater than the next seven largest rivers combined (not including Madeira and Rio Negro, which are tributaries of the Amazon). Sony VAIO VPCZ125GX/S Battery
The Amazon, which has the largest drainage basinin the world, about 7,050,000 square kilometres (2,720,000 sq mi), accounts for approximately one-fifth of the world's total river flow.[3][4]
In its upper stretches, above the confluence of the Negro River, the Amazon is called Solimões inBrazil; Sony VAIO VPCZ127FC Battery
however, in Peru, Colombia and Ecuador, as well as the rest of the Spanish-speaking world, the river is generally called the Amazon downstream from the confluence of the Marañón and Ucayalirivers in Peru. The Ucayali-Apurímac river system is considered the main source of the Amazon. Sony VAIO VPCZ128GC Battery
The width of the Amazon varies between 1.6 and 10 kilometres (1.0 and 6.2 mi) at low stage, but expands during the wet season to 48 kilometres (30 mi) or more. The river enters the Atlantic Oceanin a broad estuary about 240 kilometres (150 mi) wide. The mouth of the main stem is 80 kilometres (50 mi).[5] Sony VAIO VPCZ12M9E/B Battery
Because of its vast dimensions, it is sometimes called The River Sea. The first bridge in the Amazon river system (over the Rio Negro) opened on October 10, 2010. It is just outside Manaus.
The Amazon Basin, the largest in the world, covers about 30% of South America, an area of approximately 7,050,000 square kilometres (2,720,000 sq mi). Sony VAIO VPCZ13M9E/B Battery
It flows from west to east from Iquitos in Peru to all the way across Brazil to the Atlantic. It gathers its waters from 5 degrees north latitude to 20 degrees south latitude. Its most remote sources are found on the inter-Andeanplateau, just a short distance from the Pacific Ocean. Sony VAIO VPCZ13V9E/X Battery
The Amazon River and its tributaries are characterized by extensive forested areas that become flooded every rainy season. Every year the river rises more than 9 metres (30 ft), flooding the surrounding forests, known as várzea ("flooded forests").Sony VAIO VPCZ13Z9E/X Battery
The Amazon's flooded forests are the most extensive example of this habitat type in the world.[6] In an average dry season, 110,000 square kilometres (42,000 sq mi) of land are water-covered, while in the wet season, the flooded area of the Amazon Basin rises to 350,000 square kilometres (140,000 sq mi).[7] Sony VAIO VPCZZZHJ Battery
The quantity of water released by the Amazon to the Atlantic Ocean is enormous: up to 300,000 cubic metres per second (11,000,000 cu ft/s) in the rainy season, with an average of 209,000 cubic metres per second (7,400,000 cu ft/s) from 1973 to 1990.[8] Sony VAIO VPZ117 Battery
The Amazon is responsible for about 20% of the Earth's fresh water entering the ocean.[6] The river pushes a vast plume of fresh water into the ocean. The plume is about 400 kilometres (250 mi) long and between 100 and 200 kilometres (62 and 120 mi) wide. Sony VAIO VPZ118 Battery
The fresh water, being lighter, flows on top of the seawater, diluting the salinity and altering the color of the ocean surface over an area up to 1,000,000 square miles (2,600,000 km2) in extent. For centuries ships have reported fresh water near the Amazon's mouth yet well out of sight of land in what otherwise seemed to be the open ocean.[4] Sony VAIO VPZ119 Battery
The Atlantic has sufficient wave and tidal energy to carry most of the Amazon's sediments out to sea, thus the Amazon does not form a true delta. The great deltas of the world are all in relatively protected bodies of water while the Amazon empties directly into the turbulent Atlantic.[9] Sony VPCM11M1E/B Battery
The tidal bore is the reason the Amazon does not have a protruding delta; the ocean rapidly carries away the vast volume of silt carried by the Amazon, making it impossible for a delta to grow past the shorelines.
There is a natural water union between the Amazon and the Orinoco basins, the so-called Casiquiare canal. Sony VPCM11M1E/W Battery
The Casiquiare is a river distributary of the upper Orinoco, which flows southward into the Rio Negro, which in turn flows into the Amazon. The Casiquiare is the largest river on the planet that links two major river systems, a so-called bifurcation. Sony VPCM12M1E/L Battery
The Amazon river has a series of major river systems in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, some of which flow into the Marañón and Ucayali, others directly into the Amazon proper. Among others, these include the following rivers: Sony VPCM12M1E/P Battery
Putumayo, Caquetá, Vaupés,Guainía, Morona, Pastaza, Nucuray, Urituyacu, Chambira, Tigre, Nanay, Napo, andHuallaga.
The most distant source of the Amazon was established in 1996,[10] 2001,[11] 2007,[12]and 2008,[13] as a glacial stream on a snowcapped 5,597 m (18,363 ft) peak calledNevado Mismi in the Peruvian Andes, Sony VPCM12M1E/W Battery
roughly 160 km (99 mi) west of Lake Titicaca and 700 km (430 mi) southeast of Lima. The waters from Nevado Mismi flow into the Quebradas Carhuasanta and Apacheta, which flow into the Río Apurímac which is a tributary of the Ucayali which later joins the Marañón to form the Amazon proper. Sony VPCM13M1E/L Battery
While the Ucayali–Marañón confluence is the point at which most geographers place the beginning of the Amazon proper, in Brazil the river is known at this point as theSolimões das Águas. Further downriver from that confluence the darkly colored waters of the Rio Negro meet the sandy colored Rio Solimões, and for over 6 km (4 mi) these waters run side by side without mixing. Sony VPCM13M1E/P Battery
After the confluence of Río Apurímac and Ucayali, the river leaves Andean terrain and is instead surrounded by floodplain. From this point to the Marañón, some 1,600 km (990 mi), the forested banks are just out of water, and are inundated long before the river attains its maximum flood stage. Sony VPCM13M1E/W Battery
The low river banks are interrupted by only a few hills, and the river enters the enormous Amazon Rainforest.
The river systems and flood plains in Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela, whose waters drain into the Solimões and its tributaries are called the "Upper Amazon".Sony VAIO VPCZ118 Battery
The Amazon River proper runs mostly through Brazil and Peru, it is part of the border between Colombia and Perú, and it has tributaries reaching into Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, and Bolivia.
Flooding
Not all of the Amazon's tributaries flood at the same time of the year. Sony VAIO VPCZ118GC/B Battery
Many branches begin flooding in November, and may continue to rise until June. The rise of the Rio Negro starts in February or March, and begins to recede in June. The Madeira River rises and falls two months earlier than most of the rest of the Amazon.Sony VAIO VPCZ118GX/S Battery
The average depth of the Amazon between Manacapuru and Óbidos has been calculated as between 20 to 26 metres (66 to 85 ft). At Manacapuru the Amazon's water level is only about 24 metres (79 ft) above mean sea level. More than half of the water in the Amazon downstream of Manacapuru is below sea level.[14] Sony VAIO VPCZ119 Battery
In its lowermost section the Amazon's depth averages 20 to 50 metres (66 to 160 ft), in some places as much as 100 metres (330 ft).[15]
The main river is navigable for large ocean steamers to Manaus, 1,500 kilometres (930 mi) upriver from the mouth. Sony VAIO VPCZ119FJ/S Battery
Smaller ocean vessels of 3,000 tons or 9,000 tons[5] and 5.5 metres (18 ft) draft can reach as far as Iquitos, Peru, 3,600 kilometres (2,200 mi) from the sea. Smaller riverboats can reach 780 kilometres (480 mi) higher as far as Achual Point. Sony VAIO VPCZ119GC/X Battery
Beyond that, small boats frequently ascend to the Pongo de Manseriche, just above Achual Point.
Geography
At some points the river divides into anabranchs, or multiple channels, often very long, with inland and lateral channels, Sony VAIO VPCZ119L Battery
all connected by a complicated system of natural canals, cutting the low, flat igapó lands, which are never more than 5 metres (16 ft) above low river, into many islands.
From the town of Canaria at the great bend of the Amazon to the Negro, only very low land is found, resembling that at the mouth of the river. Sony VAIO VPCZ119R/B Battery
Vast areas of land in this region are submerged at high water, above which only the upper part of the trees of the sombre forests appear. Near the mouth of the Rio Negro to Serpa, nearly opposite the river Madeira, the banks of the Amazon are low, until approaching Manaus, they rise to become rolling hills. Sony VAIO VPCZ119R/S Battery
At Óbidos, a bluff 17 m (56 ft) above the river is backed by low hills. The lower Amazon seems to have once been a gulf of the Atlantic Ocean, the waters of which washed the cliffs near Óbidos.
Only about ten percent of the Amazon's water enters downstream of Óbidos, Sony VAIO VPCZ11AFJ Battery
very little of which is from the northern slope of the valley. The drainage area of the Amazon Basin above Óbidos city is about 5,000,000 square kilometres (1,900,000 sq mi), and, below, only about 1,000,000 square kilometres (390,000 sq mi) (around 20%), exclusive of the 1,400,000 square kilometres (540,000 sq mi) of the Tocantins basin. Sony VAIO VPCZ11AGJ Battery
The Tocantins River enters the Amazon very close to its mouth.
In the lower reaches of the river, the north bank consists of a series of steep, table-topped hills extending for about 240 kilometres (150 mi) from opposite the mouth of the Xingu as far as Monte Alegre. Sony VAIO VPCZ11AVJ Battery
These hills are cut down to a kind of terrace which lies between them and the river.
On the south bank, above the Xingu, an almost-unbroken line of low bluffs bordering the floodplain extends nearly to Santarém in a series of gentle curves before they bend to the southwest, and, Sony VAIO VPCZ11CGX/X Battery
abutting upon the lower Tapajós, merge into the bluffs which form the terrace margin of the Tapajós river valley.
Mouth
The definition of where exactly the mouth of the Amazon is located, and how wide it is, is a matter of dispute, because of the area's peculiar geography. Sony VAIO VPCZ11DGX/SJ Battery
The Pará and the Amazon are connected by a series of river channels called furos near the town of Breves; between them lies Marajó, an island almost the size of Switzerland that is the world's largest combined river/sea island.
If the Pará river and the Marajó island ocean frontage are included, the Amazon estuary is some 325 kilometres (202 mi) wide.[7] Sony VAIO VPCZ11FHX/XQ Battery
In this case, the width of the mouth of the river is usually measured from Cabo Norte, in the Brazilian state ofAmapá, to Ponta da Tijoca near the town of Curuçá, in the state of Pará. By this criterion, the Amazon is wider at its mouth than the entire length of the River Thames in England. Sony VAIO VPCZ11V9R/B Battery
A more conservative measurement excluding the Pará river estuary, from the mouth of the Araguari River to Ponta do Navio on the northern coast of Marajó, would still give the mouth of the Amazon a width of over 180 kilometres (110 mi). Sony VAIO VPCZ11X9E/B Battery
If only the river's main channel is considered, between the islands of Curuá (state of Amapá) and Jurupari (state of Pará), the width falls to about 15 kilometres (9.3 mi).
Wildlife
More than one-third of all species in the world live in the Amazon Rainforest,[16] Sony VAIO VPCZ11Z9E/B Battery
a giant tropical forest and river basin with an area that stretches more than 5,400,000 square kilometres (2,100,000 sq mi). It is the richest tropical forest in the world in terms of biodiversity. There are over 2,100 species of fish currently recognized in the Amazon Basin, with more being discovered every year[17] Sony VAIO VPCY11S1E Battery
Mammals
Along with the Orinoco, the Amazon is one of the main habitats of the boto, also known as the Amazon River Dolphin (Inia geoffrensis). It is the largest species of river dolphin, and it can grow to lengths of up to 2.6 metres (8 ft 6 in). Sony VAIO VPCY11V9E/S Battery
The color of its skin changes with age. It varies from gray when it is young, to pink and white as it matures. The dolphins usesonar to navigate and hunt in the river's tricky depths.[18] The boto is the subject of a very famous legend in Brazil about adolphin that turns into a man and seduces maidens by the riverside. Sony VAIO VPCY218EC/BI Battery
The tucuxi (Sotalia fluviatilis), also a dolphin species, is found both in the rivers of the Amazon Basin and in the coastal waters of South America. The Amazonian Manatee (Trichechus inunguis) also known as “seacow” is found in the northern Amazon River Basin and its tributaries. Sony VAIO VPCY218EC/G Battery
It is a mammal and a herbivore. Its population is limited to fresh water habitats and unlike other manatees, they do not venture into salt water. It is classified as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The Amazon and its tributaries are the main habitat of the Giant Otter (Pteronura brasiliensis). Sony VAIO VPCY218EC/L Battery
The giant otter is a member of the weasel family and is the largest of its kind. Because of habitat destruction and hunting its population has dramatically decreased.
Reptiles
The anaconda snake is found in shallow waters in the Amazon Basin. Sony VAIO VPCY218EC/P Battery
One of the world's largest species of snake, the anaconda spends most of its time in the water, with just its nostrils above the surface. In addition to the thousands of species of fish, the river supports crabs, algae, and turtles. The caiman, which is related to alligators and other crocodilians, also inhabits the Amazon. Sony VAIO VPCY21S1E/L Battery
Caimans pose a serious threat to humans, as there have been recorded attacks.
Fish
The Amazonian fish fauna is the center of diversity for Neotropical fishes, of which more than 5,600 species are currently known (Albert and Reis, 2011).[19] Sony VAIO VPCY21S1E/P Battery
Thebull shark (Carcharhinus leucas) has been reported 4,000 kilometres (2,500 mi) up the Amazon River at Iquitos in Peru. The arapaima, known in Brazil as thepirarucu (Arapaima gigas), is a South American tropical freshwater fish. Sony VAIO VPCY21S1E/SI Battery
It is one of the largest fresh water fish in the world, reportedly with a maximum length in excess of 4.5 metres (15 ft) and weight up to 200 kilograms (440 lb).[20] Another Amazonian fresh water fish is the arowana (or aruanã in Portuguese), such as the Silver arowana (Osteoglossum bicirrhosum), Sony VAIO VPCZ110 Battery
which is also a predator and very similar to the arapaima, but only reaches a length of maximum 120 centimetres (47 in). Also present in large numbers is the notorious piranha, a carnivorous fish which congregates in large schools, and may attack livestock and even humans. Sony VAIO VPCZ110GB/BI Battery
There are approximately from 30 to 60 species of piranha. However, only a few of its species are known to attack humans, most notably Pygocentrus nattereri, the Red-bellied Piranha. The candirú are a number of general parasitic, fresh water catfish in the family Trichomycteridae; Sony VAIO VPCZ112GD/S Battery
all are native to the Amazon River.[21] The strongly electric electric eel (Electrophorus electricus) and more than 100 species of weakly electric fishes Gymnotiformes also inhabit the Amazon Basin.
Colonial encounters
During what many archaeologists call the formative period, Sony VAIO VPCZ112GX/S Battery
Amazonian societies were deeply involved in the emergence of South America's highland agrariansystems, and possibly contributed directly to the social and religious fabric constitutive of the Andean civilizational orders.
In 1500, Vicente Yáñez Pinzón was the first European to sail into the river.[22] Sony VAIO VPCZ114GX/S Battery
Pinzón called the river flow Río Santa María del Mar Dulce, later shortened to Mar Dulce (literally, sweet sea, because of its fresh water pushing out into the ocean). For 350 years after the first European encounter of the Amazon by Pinzón, Sony VAIO VPCZ115 Battery
the Portuguese portion of the basin remained an untended former food gathering and planned agricultural landscape occupied by the indigenous peoples who survived the arrival of European diseases. There is ample evidence for complex large-scale, pre-Columbian social formations, Sony VAIO VPCZ115FC/B Battery
including chiefdoms, in many areas of Amazonia (particularly the inter-fluvial regions) and even large towns and cities.[23] For instance the pre-Columbian culture on the island of Marajó may have developed social stratification and supported a population of 100,000 people.[24] Sony VAIO VPCZ115FC/S Battery
The Native Americans of the Amazon rain forest may have used Terra preta to make the land suitable for the large-scale agriculture needed to support large populations and complex social formations such as chiefdoms.[24]
One of Gonzalo Pizarro's lieutenants, Francisco de Orellana, Sony VAIO VPCZ116 Battery
set off in 1541 to explore east of Quito into the South American interior in search of El Dorado and the "Country of Cinnamon".[25] He was ordered to follow the Coca River and return when the river reached its confluence. After 170 km, the Coca River joined the Napo River (at a point now known as Puerto Francisco de Orellana), Sony VAIO VPCZ116GX/S Battery
and his men threatened to mutiny if he followed his orders and the expedition turned back. On 26 December 1541, he accepted to change the purpose of the expedition to the conquest of new lands in the name of the King of Spain, and the forty-nine men built a larger boat in which to navigate downstream. Sony VAIO VPCZ117 Battery
After a journey of 600 km down the Napo River, constantly threatened by the Omaguas, they reached a further major confluence, at a point near modern Iquitos, and then followed what is now known as the Amazon River for a further 1200 km to its confluence with the Rio Negro (near modern Manaus), which they reached on 3 June 1542. Sony VAIO VPCZ117FC/B Battery
This area around the Amazon was dominated by the Icamiaba natives, who were mistaken for fierce female warriors by the members of the expedition. Orellana later narrated the belligerent victory of the Icamiaba “women” over the Spanish invaders to Charles V, Sony VAIO VPCW217JC/T Battery
Holy Roman Emperor, who, recalling the Amazons of Greek mythology, baptized the river Amazonas, the name by which it is still known in both Spanish and Portuguese. At the time, however, the river was referred to by the expedition as Grande Río ("Great River"), Mar Dulce ("Fresh Water Sea") or Río de la Canela("Cinnamon River").Sony VAIO VPCW217JC/W Battery
Orellana claimed that he had found great cinnamon trees there, in other words a source of one of the most important spices reaching Europe from the East. In fact, true cinnamon (Cinnamomum verum) is not native to South America. Sony VAIO VPCW218JC Battery
Other related cinnamon-containing plants (of the family Lauraceae) do occur and Orellana must have observed some of these. The expedition continued a further 1200 km to the mouth of the Amazon, which it reached on 24 August 1542, demonstrating the practical navigability of the Great River. Sony VAIO VPCW218JC/L Battery
This was surely one of the most improbably successful voyages in known history.
In 1560, another Spanish conquistador, Lope de Aguirre, made the second descent of the Amazon.
In 1637–47, the Portuguese explorer Pedro Teixeira was the first European to ascend the river from Belém, Sony VAIO VPCW218JC/P Battery
near the mouth, toQuito, part of the Spanish Viceroyalty of Peru, and then to return the same way. Teixeira's expedition was massive—some 2000 people in 37 large canoes. From 1648 to 1652, António Raposo Tavares lead one of the longest known expeditions from São Pauloto the mouth of the Amazon, Sony VAIO VPCW218JC/T Battery
investigating many of its tributaries, including the Rio Negro, and covering a distance of more than 10,000 km (6,214 mi).
In what is currently Brazil, Ecuador, Bolivia, Colombia, Peru, and Venezuela, Sony VAIO VPCW218JC/W Battery
a number of colonial and religious settlements were established along the banks of primary rivers and tributaries for the purpose of trade, slaving and evangelization among the indigenous peoples of the vast rain forest, such as the Urarina. Father Fritz, apostle of the Omaguas, established some forty mission villages. Sony VAIO VPCW219AJ/L Battery
Charles Marie de La Condamine accomplished the first scientific exploration of the Amazon River.
Many indigenous tribes engaged in constant warfare. According to James Stuart Olson, Sony VAIO VPCW219AJ/P Battery
"The Munduruku expansion dislocated and displaced the Kawahib, breaking the tribe down into much smaller groups... [Munduruku] first came to the attention of Europeans in 1770 when they began a series of widespread attacks on Brazilian settlements along the Amazon River."[26] Sony VAIO VPCW219AJ/W Battery
The Cabanagem, one of the bloodiest regional wars ever in Brazil, which was chiefly directed against the white ruling class, reduced the population of Pará from about 100,000 to 60,000.[27]
The total population of the Brazilian portion of the Amazon Basin in 1850 was perhaps 300,000, Sony VAIO VPCW21AAJ Battery
of whom about two-thirds comprised by Europeans and slaves, the slaves amounting to about 25,000. The Brazilian Amazon's principal commercial city, Pará (now Belém), had from 10,000 to 12,000 inhabitants, including slaves. The town of Manáos, now Manaus, Sony VAIO VPCW21AKJ Battery
at the mouth of the Rio Negro, had a population between 1,000 to 1,500. All the remaining villages, as far up as Tabatinga, on the Brazilian frontier of Peru, were relatively small.
Post-colonial history
On 6 September 1850 the emperor, Pedro II, sanctioned a law authorizing steam navigation on the Amazon, Sony VAIO VPCW21AVJ Battery
and gave the Viscount of Mauá (Irineu Evangelista de Sousa) the task of putting it into effect. He organized the "Companhia de Navegação e Comércio do Amazonas" in Rio de Janeiro in 1852; and in the following year it commenced operations with three small steamers, the Monarch, theMarajó and Rio Negro. Sony VAIO VPCY115FGS Battery
At first, navigation was principally confined to the main river; and even in 1857 a modification of the government contract only obliged the company to a monthly service between Pará and Manaus, with steamers of 200 tons cargo capacity, a second line to make six round voyages a year between Manaus and Tabatinga, Sony VAIO VPCY115FX/BI Battery
and a third, two trips a month between Pará and Cametá. This was the first step in opening up the vast interior.
The success of the venture called attention to the opportunities for economic exploitation of the Amazon, and a second company soon opened commerce on the Madeira, Sony VAIO VPCY115FXBI Battery
Purus and Negro; a third established a line between Pará and Manaus; and a fourth found it profitable to navigate some of the smaller streams. In that same period, the Amazonas Company was increasing its fleet. Meanwhile, private individuals were building and running small steam craft of their own on the main river as well as on many of its tributaries. Sony VAIO VPCY118EC Battery
On 31 July 1867 the government of Brazil, constantly pressed by the maritime powers and by the countries encircling the upper Amazonbasin, especially Peru, decreed the opening of the Amazon to all flags; but limited this to certain defined points: Tabatinga – on the Amazon; Sony VAIO VPCY118GX/BI Battery
Cametá – on the Tocantins; Santarém – on the Tapajós; Borba – on the Madeira, and Manaus – on the Rio Negro. The Brazilian decree took effect on 7 September 1867.
Thanks in part to the mercantile development associated with steamboat navigation, coupled with the internationally driven demand for natural rubber (1880–1920), Sony VAIO VPCY119FJ/S Battery
Manáos (now Manaus) and Pará (now Belém) in (Brazil), and Iquitos, Peru became thriving, cosmopolitan centers of commerce and spectacular—albeit illusory—"modern" "urban growth". This was particularly the case for Iquitos during its late 19th and early 20th century Rubber Bonanza zenith when Sony VAIO VPCY11AFJ Battery
this dynamic boomtown was known abroad as the St. Louis of the Amazon. Foreign companies settled in this city, from where they controlled the extraction of rubber. In 1851 Iquitos had a population of 200 and by 1900 its population reached 20,000. In the 1860s, Sony VAIO VPCY11AGJ Battery
approximately 3,000 tons of rubber was being exported annually and by 1911 annual exports had grown to 44,000 tons, representing 9.3% of Peru’s exports.[28]During the rubber boom it is estimated that diseases brought by immigrants such as typhus or malaria killed 40,000 native Amazonians.[29] Sony VAIO VPCY11AHJ Battery
The first direct foreign trade with Manaus was commenced around 1874. Local trade along the river was carried on by the English successors to the Amazonas Company—the Amazon Steam Navigation Company—as well as numerous small steamboats, Sony VAIO VPCY11AVJ Battery
belonging to companies and firms engaged in the rubber trade, navigating the Negro, Madeira, Purus and many other tributaries, such as the Marañón to ports as distant as Nauta, Peru. The Amazon Steam Navigation Company had 38 vessels. Sony VAIO VPCY11M1E/S Battery
By the turn of the 20th century, the principal exports of the Amazon Basin were India-rubber, cacao beans, Brazil nuts and a few other products of minor importance, such as pelts and exotic forest produce (resins, barks, woven hammocks, prized bird feathers, live animals, etc.) and extracted goods (lumber, gold, etc.). Sony VAIO VPCW11AXJ Battery
20th- and 21st-century concerns
Four centuries after the European discovery of the Amazon river, the total cultivated area in its basin was probably less than 65 square kilometres (25 sq mi), excluding the limited and crudely cultivated areas among the mountains at its extreme headwaters.Sony VAIO VPCW11S1E/P Battery
This situation changed dramatically during the 20th century.
Wary of foreign exploitation of the nation's resources, Brazilian governments in the 1940s set out to develop the interior, away from the seaboard, where foreigners owned large tracts of land. Sony VAIO VPCW11S1E/T Battery
The original architect of this expansion was PresidentGetúlio Vargas, with the demand for rubber from the Allied forces in World War II providing funding for the drive.
In 1960, the construction of the new capital city of Brasília in the interior also contributed to the opening up of the Amazon Basin.Sony VAIO VPCW11S1E/W Battery
A large-scale colonization program saw families from Northeastern Brazil relocated to the forests, encouraged by promises of cheap land. Many settlements grew along the road from Brasília to Belém, but rainforest soil proved difficult to cultivate.
Still, long-term development plans continued. Sony VAIO VPCW121AX Battery
Roads were cut through the forests, and in 1970, the work on the Trans-Amazonian highway (Transamazônica) network began. The network's three pioneering highways were completed within ten years, but never fulfilled their promise. Large portions of the Trans-Amazonian and its accessory roads, Sony VAIO VPCW126AG Battery
such as BR-319(Manaus-Porto Velho), are derelict and impassable in the rainy season. Small towns and villages are scattered across the forest and because its vegetation is so dense, some remote areas are still unexplored.
With a current population of 1.8 million people, Manaus is the Amazon’s largest city. Sony VAIO VPCW127JC/P Battery
Manaus alone represents approximately 50% of the population of the Brazilian state of Amazonas, which is the largest state. The racial makeup of the city is 64%Pardo (Mulatto and mestizo) and 32% White.[30]
Dispute regarding length
While debate as to whether the Amazon or the Nile is the world's longest river has gone on for many years, Sony VAIO VPCW127JC/T Battery
the historic consensus of geographic authorities has been to regard the Amazon as the second longest river in the world, with the Nile being the longest. However, the Amazon has been measured by different geographers as being anywhere between 6,259 and 6,800 kilometres (3,889 and 4,200 mi) long. Sony VAIO VPCW127JC/W Battery
It is often said to be "at least" 6,400 kilometres (4,000 mi) long.[31] The Nile is reported to be anywhere from 5,499 to 6,690 kilometres (3,417 to 4,160 mi). Often it is said to be "about" 6,650 kilometres (4,130 mi) long.[32] There are many factors that can affect these measurements. Sony VAIO VPCW127JC/WZ Battery
A study by Brazilian scientists concluded that the Amazon is actually longer than the Nile. Using Nevado Mismi, which in 2001 was labeled by the National Geographic Society as the Amazon's source, these scientists made new calculations of the Amazon's length. Sony VAIO VPCW12AAJ Battery
They calculated the Amazon's length as 6,992 kilometres (4,345 mi). Using the same techniques they calculated the length of the Nile as 6,853 kilometres (4,258 mi), which is longer than previous estimates but still shorter than the Amazon. Sony VAIO VPCW12AKJ Battery
They made it possible by measuring the Amazon downstream to the beginning of the tidal estuary of Canal do Sul and then, after a sharp turn back, following tidal canals surrounding the isle of Marajó and finally including the marine Waters of theRío Pará bay in its entire length. Sony VAIO VPCW12AVJ Battery
Guido Gelli, director of science at the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), told the Brazilian TV network Globo in June 2007 that it could be considered as a fact that the Amazon was the longest river in the world. However, other geographers have had access to the same data since 2001, Sony VAIO VPCW12S1E/P Battery
and a consensus has yet to emerge to support the claims of these Brazilian scientists. As of 2010 the length of both the Amazon and the Nile remains open to interpretation and continued debate.[31]
Scientists have discovered the longest underground river in the world, in Brazil, running for a length of 6,000 km at a depth of nearly 4 km. Sony VAIO VPCW12S1E/T Battery
It flows from the Andean foothills to the Atlantic coast in a nearly west-to-east direction like the Amazon River. The discovery was made public at a recent meeting of the Brazilian Geophysical Society in Rio de Janeiro. The river ‘Hamza,' named after the discoverer, Sony VAIO VPCW12S1E/W Battery
an Indian-born scientist Valiya Mannathal Hamza who is working with the National Observatory at Rio, makes it the first and geologically unusual instance of a twin-river system flowing at different levels of the earth's crust in Brazil. Sony VAIO VPCW213AG/L Battery
If the slowing down of certain seismic waves caused by the damp spot helped uncover the underground ocean, the unusual temperature variation with depth measured in 241 inactive oil wells helped locate the subterranean river. Except for the flow direction, the Amazon and the Hamza have very different characteristics. Sony VAIO VPCW213AG/P Battery
The most obvious ones are their width and flow speed. While the former is 1 km to 100 km wide, the latter is 200 km to 400 km in width. But the flow speed is five meters per second in the Amazon and less than a millimeter per second speed in the Hamza.[34]Sony VAIO VPCW213AG/T Battery
Several geological factors have played a vital role in the formation and existence of these subterranean water bodies. The underground ocean, discovered in 2007, has been formed when the plate carrying the Pacific Ocean bottom gets dragged and ends up under the continental plate. Sony VAIO VPCW213AG/W Battery
Water at such depths would normally escape upwards but the unusual conditions that exist along the eastern Pacific Rim allow the moisture to remain intact. In the case of the Hamza, the porous and permeable sedimentary rocks behave as conduits for the water to sink to greater depths. Sony VAIO VPCW215AG/L Battery
East-west trending faults and the karst topography present along the northern border of the Amazon basin may have some role in supplying water to the river. If the impermeable rocks stop the vertical flow, the west to east gradient of the topography directs it to flow towards the Atlantic Ocean. Sony VAIO VPCW217JC Battery
Unlike the Hamza, the 153 km-long underground river in Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula and the 8.2 km-long Cabayugan River in the Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park in the Philippines have come into being thanks to the karst topography. Sony VAIO VPCW217JC/L Battery
Water in these places drills its way downward by dissolving the carbonate rock to form an extensive underground river system.
The Madeira River is a major waterway in South America, approximately 3,250 km (2,020) miles long[1] The Madeira is the biggest tributary of the Amazon. Sony VAIO VPCW217JC/P Battery
A map from Emanuel Bowen in 1747, held by the David Rumsey Map Collection, refers to the Madeira by the pre-colonial, indigenous name Cuyari:
"The River of Cuyari, called by the Portuguese Madeira or the Wood River, is formed by two great rivers, which join near its mouth. Sony VAIO VPCS125EC Battery
It was by this River, that the Nation of Topinambes passed into the River Amazon."
Climate
The mean inter-annual precipitations on the great basins vary from 750 to 3,000 millimetres (30 to 120 in), the entire upper Madeira basin receiving 1,705 millimetres (67.1 in). Sony VAIO VPCS128EC Battery
The greatest extremes of rainfall are between 490 to 7,000 millimetres (19 to 280 in). At its head, the Madeira on its own is still one of the largest rivers of the world, with a mean inter-annual discharge of 18,000 cubic metres per second (640,000 cu ft/s), i.e. 536 cubic kilometres (129 cu mi)/yr, Sony VAIO VPCS129GC Battery
approximately half the discharge of the Congo River. The mean inter-annual contribution of the Bolivian Andes is 4,170 cubic metres per second (147,000 cu ft/s), i.e. 132 cubic kilometres (32 cu mi)yr, representing 25% of the discharge of the entire upper Madeira basin. Sony VAIO VPCS12C7E/B Battery
On the further course towards the Amazon, the mean discharge of the Madeira increases up to 31,200 cubic metres per second (1,100,000 cu ft/s).
Course
Between Guajará-Mirim and the falls of Teotônio, the Madeira receives the drainage of the north-eastern slopes of the Andes from Santa Cruz de la Sierra to Cuzco, Sony VAIO VPCS12L9E/B Battery
the whole of the south-western slope of Brazilian Mato Grosso and the northern slope of the Chiquitos sierras. In total, the catchment area is 850,000 km2,[3] almost equal in area to France and Spain combined. The waters flow into the Madeira from many large rivers, Sony VAIO VPCS12V9E/B Battery
the principal of which, (from east to west), are the Guaporé or Itenez, the Baures and Blanco, the Itonama or San Miguel, the Mamoré,Beni, and Mayutata or Madre de Dios, all of which are reinforced by numerous secondary but powerful affluents.Sony VAIO VPCW111XX/P Battery
The climate of the upper catchment area varies from humid in the western edge with the origin of the river's main stem by volume (Río Madre de Dios, Río Beni) to semi arid in the southernmost part with the andine headwaters of the main stem by length (Río Caine, Río Rocha, Río Grande, Mamoré). Sony VAIO VPCW111XX/PC Battery
All of the upper branches of the river Madeira find their way to the falls across the open, almost level Mojos andBeni plains, 90,000 km2 (35,000 sq mi) of which are yearly flooded to an average depth of about 3 feet (0.91 m) for a period of from three to four months. Sony VAIO VPCW111XX/T Battery
The falls of Teotônio and of San Antonio are exceeding the more famous Boyoma Falls in Africa by volume and total drop. From these rapids, the Madeira flows northward forming the border between Bolivia and Brazil for approximately 100 km (62 mi). Sony VAIO VPCW111XX/W Battery
Below the confluence of the Rio Abunã, the Madeira meanders north-eastward through the Rondônia and Amazonas states of north west Brazil to its junction with the Amazon. At its mouth is Ilha Tupinambaranas, an extensive marshy region formed by the Madeira’s distributaries. Sony VAIO VPCW111XXP Battery
Navigation
The Madeira river rises more than 15 m (50 ft) during the rainy season, and ocean vessels may ascend it to the Falls of San Antonio, near Porto Velho, Brazil, 1,070 km (660 mi) above its mouth; Sony VAIO VPCW111XXT Battery
but in the dry months, from June to November, it is only navigable for the same distance for craft drawing about 2 m (from 5 to 6 feet) of water. The Madeira-Mamoré Railroad runs in a 365 km (227 mi) loop around the unnavigable section to Guajará-Mirimon the Mamoré River. Sony VAIO VPCW111XXW Battery
Two large dams (see below) are under construction as part of the IIRSA regional integration project. The dam projects include large ship-locks capable of moving ocean going vessels between the impounded reservoir and the downstream river. Sony VAIO VPCW115XG Battery
If the project is completed, "more than 4,000 km of waterways upstream from the dams in Brazil, Bolivia, and Peru would become navigable."
Dams
In July 2007, plans have been approved by the Brazilian Government to construct two hydroelectric dams on the Madeira River,Sony VAIO VPCW115XGP Battery
the Santo Antonio Dam near Porto Velho and the Jirau Dam about 100km downstream. Both the Jirau and Santo Antonio dams are run-of-the-river projects that do not impound a large reservoir. Both dams also feature significant environmental re-mediation efforts (such as fish ladders). Sony VAIO VPCW115XW/P Battery
As a consequence, there has not been strong environmental opposition to the implementation of the Madeira river complex.[5] However, critics point out that if the fish ladders fail, "several valuable migratory fish species could suffer near-extinction as a result of the Madeira dams." Sony VAIO VPCW115XW/T Battery
There are also concerns with deforestation and pressure on conservation areas and indigenous peoples' territories.The Worldwatch institute has also criticized the fast-track approval process for "kindler, gentler dams with smaller reservoirs, designed to lessen social and environmental impacts", Sony VAIO VPCW115XW/W Battery
claiming that no project should "fast-track the licensing of new dams in Amazonia and allow projects to circumvent Brazil's tough environmental laws".
The Purus is a tributary of the Amazon River in South America. Its drainage basin is 63,166 km2 (24,389 sq mi), and the mean discharge is 8,400 m³/s. Sony VAIO VPCW117XC/P Battery
It enters the Amazon River west of the Madeira River, which it parallels as far south as the falls of the latter stream. It runs through a continuous forest at the bottom of the great depression lying between the Madeira River, which skirts the edge of the Brazilian sandstone plateau, and the Ucayali which hugs the base of the Andes. Sony VAIO VPCW117XC/T Battery
The river forms a small part of the international boundary between Brazil and Peru.
One of its marked features is the five parallel furos which from the north-west at almost regular intervals the Amazon sends to the Purus; the most south-westerly one being about 150 miles (240 km) above the mouth of the latter river. Sony VAIO VPCW117XC/W Battery
They cut a great area of very low-lying country into five islands. Farther down the Purus to the right three smaller furos also connect it with the Amazon.
William Chandless found its elevation above sea-level to be only 107 feet (33 m) 590 miles (950 km) from its mouth. Sony VAIO VPCW119XJ Battery
It is one of the most crooked streams in the world, and its length in a straight line is less than half that by its curves. It is practically only a drainage ditch for the half-submerged, lake-flooded district it traverses.
Its width is very uniform for 1000 miles (1600 km) up, and for 800 miles (1300 km) its depth is never less than 45 feet (15 m).Sony VAIO VPCW119XJ/P Battery
It is navigable by steamers for 1648 miles (2650 km) as far as the little stream, the Curumaha, but only by light-draft craft. Chandless ascended it 1866 miles (3,000 km). At 1792 miles (2,880 km) it forks into two small streams. Occasionally a cliff touches the river, Sony VAIO VPCW119XJ/W Battery
but in general the lands are subject to yearly inundations throughout its course, the river rising at times above 50 feet (15 m), the numerous lakes to the right and left serving as reservoirs.
Its main tributary, the Aquiry or Acre River, enters from the right about 1104 miles (1777 km) from the Amazon. Sony VAIO VPCP11S1E/W Battery
Its sources are near those of the Mayutata. It is navigable for a period of about five months of the year, when the Purus valley is inundated; and, for the remaining seven months, only canoes can ascend it sufficiently high to communicate overland with the settlements in the great India-rubber districts of the Mayutata and lower Beni; Sony VAIO VPC-P11S1E/W Battery
thus these regions are forced to seek a canoe outlet for their rich products by the very dangerous, costly and laborious route of the falls of the Madeira River.
In 2008 a previously unknown precolumbian civilization was discovered in the upper region of the river close to the Bolivian border. Sony VAIO VPCP11Z9E/B Battery
After much of the forest in the region was cleared for agricultural use, satellite pictures revealed the remains of large geometric earthworks.
The Japurá River or Caquetá River is a river about 2,816 kilometres (1,750 mi) long (some sources[who?] say 2,414 km) rising as the Caquetá River in the Andes in the Southwest of Colombia. Sony VAIO VPCS111FM/S Battery
It flows southeast into Brazil, where it is called the Japurá. The Japurá enters the Amazon River through a network of channels. It is navigable by small boats in Brazil.
The river is home to a wide variety of fish and reptiles, Sony VAIO VPCS115EC Battery
including enormous catfish weighing up to 91 kg (200 lb) and measuring up to 1.8 metres (5.9 ft) in length, electric eels, piranhas, turtles, and caimans. It also serves as a principal means of transportation, being plied by tiny dugout canoes, larger ones, motorboats, and riverboatsknown locally as lanchas. Sony VAIO VPCS115FG Battery
The boats carry a multitude of cargoes, sometimes being chartered, sometimes even being traveling general stores. In the Colombian section, the presence of guerrillas and soldiers often severely limits river traffic.
Much of the jungle through which the eastern Caquetá originally flowed has been cleared for pasture, Sony VAIO VPCS117GG Battery
crops of rice, corn,manioc, and sugar cane, and in the past two decades, particularly coca crops.
West of the Rio Negro, the Solimões River (as the Amazon's upper Brazilian course is called) receives three more imposing streams from the northwest—Sony VAIO VPCS117GGB Battery
the Japurá, the Içá (referred to as the Putumayo before it crosses over into Brazil), and theNapo. The Caquetá River, later to become the Japurá, rises in the Colombian Andes, nearly in touch with the sources of the Magdalena River, and augments its volume from many branches as it courses through Colombia. Sony VAIO VPCS118EC Battery
The 19th-century Brazilian historian and geographer José Coelho da Gama e Abreu, the Baron of Marajó, attributed 970 kilometres (600 mi) of navigable stretches to it. Jules Crevaux, who descended it, described it as full of obstacles to navigation, the current very strong and the stream frequently interrupted by rapids and cataracts. Sony VAIO VPCS119FJ/B Battery
It was initially supposed to have eight mouths, but colonial administrator Francisco Xavier Ribeiro Sampaio, in the historic report of his voyage of 1774, determined that there was but one real mouth, and that the supposed others are all furos or canos, as the diverting secondary channels of the Amazonian rivers are known. Sony VAIO VPCS119GC Battery
In 1864–1868, the Brazilian government made a somewhat careful examination of the Brazilian part of the river, as far up as the rapid of Cupati. Several very easy and almost complete water routes exist between the Japurá and Negro across the low, flat intervening country. Sony VAIO VPCS11AFJ Battery
The Baron of Marajó wrote that there were six of them, and one which connects the upper Japurá with the Vaupés branch of the Negro; thus the indigenous tribes of the respective valleys have easy contact with each other.
The Tocantins is a river in Brazil, the central fluvial artery of the country. Sony VAIO VPCS11AGJ Battery
In the Tupi language, its name means "toucan's beak" (Tukã for "toucan" and Ti for "beak"). It runs from south to north for about 2,640 km. It is not really a branch of the Amazon River, although usually so considered, since its waters flow into the Atlantic Ocean alongside those of the Amazon. Sony VAIO VPCS11AHJ Battery
It flows through four Brazilian states (Goiás, Tocantins, Maranhão and Pará) and gives its name to one of Brazil's newest states, formed in 1988 from what was until then the northern portion of Goiás.
Course
It rises in the mountainous district known as the Pireneus, Sony VAIO VPCS11AVJ Battery
west of the Federal District, but its western tributary, theAraguaia River, has its extreme southern headwaters on the slopes of the Serra dos Caiapós. The Araguaia flows 1,670 km before its confluence with the Tocantins, to which it is almost equal in volume. Sony VAIO VPCS11J7E/B Battery
Besides its main tributary, the Rio das Mortes, the Araguaia has twenty smaller branches, offering many miles of canoe navigation. In finding its way to the lowlands, it breaks frequently into waterfalls and rapids, or winds violently through rocky gorges, Sony VAIO VPCS11M1E/W Battery
until, at a point about 160 km above its junction with the Tocantins, it saws its way across a rocky dyke for 20 km in roaring cataracts.
Two other tributaries, called the Maranhão and Paranatinga, collect an immense volume of water from the highlands which surround them, Sony VAIO VPCS11V9E Battery
especially on the south and south-east. Between the latter and the confluence with the Araguaia, the Tocantins is occasionally obstructed by rocky barriers which cross it almost at a right angle.
Dams
Downstream from the Araguaia confluence, in the state of Pará, Sony VAIO VPCS11V9E/B Battery
the river used to have many cataracts and rapids, but they were flooded in the early 1980s by the artificial lake created by the Tucuruí dam, one of the world's largest. When the second phase of the Tucuruí project is completed, there will be a system of locks that will make a long extension of the river navigable. Sony VAIO VPCS11X9E/B Battery
The construction works on the locks have been stalled for many years due to lack of funding, but it is possible that they will be included in a massive development program launched by the Brazilian government in 2007, in which case they could be operational within about four years. Sony VAIO VPCS123FGB Battery
Geology
The flat, broad valleys, composed of sand and clay, of both the Tocantins and its Araguaia branch are overlooked by steep bluffs. They are the margins of the great sandstone plateaus, from 300 to 600 m elevation above sea-level, through which the rivers have eroded their deep beds. Sony VAIO VPCP115JC/B Battery
Around the estuary of the Tocantins the great plateau has disappeared, to give place to a part of the forest-covered, half submerged alluvial plain, which extends far to the north-east and west. The Pará River, generally called one of the mouths of the Amazon, is only the lower reach of the Tocantins. Sony VAIO VPCP115JC/D Battery
If any portion of the waters of the Amazon runs round the southern side of the large island of Marajó into the river Para, it is only through tortuous, natural canals, which are in no sense outflow channels of the Amazon.
The Araguaia River or, in Portuguese, Rio Araguaia is one of the major rivers of Brazil, and the principal tributary of the Tocantins. Sony VAIO VPCP115JC/G Battery
It has a total length of approximately 2,627 km. Araguaia means "river of (red) macaws" in the Tupi language.
Because of the vast number of tributaries, it is not easy to define its source. Sony VAIO VPCP115JC/P Battery
Important tributaries originate in the Araras mountain range in Mato Grosso as well in the Divisões mountain range situated in Goiás (according to other sources however, the Araguaia comes from the Caiapó Range, at the Goiás-Mato Grosso border). From there it flows northeast to a junction with the Tocantins near the town of São João. Sony VAIO VPCP115JC/W Battery
Along its course, the river forms the border between the Brazilian federal states of Goiás, Mato Grosso, Tocantins andPará. Roughly in the middle of its course, the Araguaia splits into two forks (with the western one retaining the name Araguaia and the eastern one being called Rio Javaés). Sony VAIO VPCP115KG Battery
These later reunite, forming the Ilha do Bananal, the world's largest river island. The mouth of the Javaés forms a broad inland delta where it pours back into the main Araguaia, a 100,000 hectare expanse of igapó flooded forest, blackwater river channels, and oxbow lakes called Cantão. Sony VAIO VPCP116KG Battery
This is one of the biologically richest areas of the eastern Amazon, with over 700 species of birds, nearly 300 species of fish (more than in all of Europe), and large populations of threatened species such as the giant otter, the black cayman, and the world's largest freshwater fish, Sony VAIO VPC-P116KX/B Battery
the pirarucú, all occurring within a relatively small area.
A large portion of the Araguaia's course is navigable all year, but the river below the Cantão wetlands is interrupted by rapids.
The combined watershed of Araguaia and Tocantins rivers (named the Araguaia Tocantins Basin) covers approximately 9.5 % of Brazil's national territory. Sony VAIO VPC-P116KX/D Battery
This area is an integral part of the Amazon Basin. However, the Araguaia River is not a tributary of the Amazon.
"Araguaia" means "River of the Macaws" in the native Tupi language.
The Juruá River (Portuguese Rio Juruá; Spanish Río Yurúa) is a southern affluent river of the Amazon River west of thePurus River, Sony VAIO VPC-P116KX/G Battery
sharing with this the bottom of the immense inland Amazon depression, and having all the characteristics of the Purus as regards curvature, sluggishness and general features of the low, half-flooded forest country it traverses. It rises among the Ucayali highlands, Sony VAIO VPC-P116KX/P Battery
and is navigable and unobstructed for a distance of 1133 miles (1823 km) above its junction with the Amazon. It has a total length of approximately 1500 miles (2414 km), and is one of the longest tributaries of the Amazon.
Rio Negro (Portuguese: Rio Negro, Spanish: Río Negro, English: Black River) Sony VAIO VPC-P116KX/W Battery
is the largest left tributary of theAmazon and the largest blackwater river in the world. It has its sources along the watershed between the Orinoco and the Amazon basins, and also connects with the Orinoco by way of the Casiquiare canal in southern Venezuela. Sony VAIO VPCP118JC Battery
In Colombia, where the Rio Negro's sources are located, it is called the Guainía River. Its main affluent is theVaupés, which disputes with the headwaters of the Guaviare branch of the Orinoco, the drainage of the eastern slope of the Andes of Colombia.Sony VAIO VPCP118JC/B Battery
The Rio Negro flows into the Rio Solimões to form the Amazon River South of Manaus, Brazil.
Rio Negro is navigable for 700 kilometres (430 mi) from its mouth in 1 metre of water in the dry season, but it has many sandbanks and minor difficulties. Sony VAIO VPCP118JC/P Battery
A small portion of it forms the international boundary between Colombia and Venezuela.
In the wet season, it floods the country far and wide, sometimes to a width of 30 kilometres (19 mi), for long distances, and for 650 kilometres (400 mi) upstream. Sony VAIO VPCP118JC/W Battery
During this time, from April until October, it is a succession of lagoons, full of long islands and intricate channels as far as Santa Isabel do Rio Negro. The foothills of the Andes begin just before reaching the Vaupés River. At this point, the Negro narrows and is filled with many large rocks over which it violently flows in cataracts, Sony VAIO VPC-P118KX/B Battery
rapids and whirlpools. Despite the impediments, canoes and motor launches ascend past São Gabriel da Cachoeira to the Andes.
While the name Rio Negro means Black River, its waters aren't exactly black; they are similar in color to strong tea. Sony VAIO VPC-P118KX/D Battery
The dark color comes from humic acidfrom incomplete breakdown of phenol-containing vegetation from sandy clearings. The river's name arises from the fact that it looks black from afar.
Much has been written on the productivity of the Rio Negro and other blackwater rivers. Sony VAIO VPC-P118KX/G Battery
The older idea that these are "hunger rivers" is giving way, with new research, to the recognition that the Rio Negro, for example, supports a large fishing industry and has numerous turtle beaches. If the Negro was empty of Indians during the 17th century, introduced exotic diseases and warfare are more likely causes than low river productivity. Sony VAIO VPC-P118KX/P Battery
The Tapajós, a Brazilian river running through a humid and hot valley, pours into the Amazon River 500 miles above Paráand is about 1200 miles long.
It rises on the lofty Brazilian plateau near Diamantino in 14 degrees 25' south latitude. Sony VAIO VPC-P118KX/W Battery
Near this place a number of streams unite to form the river Arinos, which at latitude 10 degrees 25' joins the Juruena to form the Alto Tapajós, so called as far down as the Rio Manoel, which enters it from the east.
Thence to Santarém the stream is known as the Tapajós. Sony VAIO VPCP119JC Battery
The lower Arinos, the Alto Tapajós and the Tapajós to the last rapid, the Maranhão Grande, are a continuous series of formidable cataracts and rapids; but from the Maranhão Grande to its mouth, about 188 miles, the river can be navigated by large vessels.Sony VAIO VPCP119JC/BI Battery
For its last 100 miles it is from 4 to 9 miles wide and much of it very deep. The valley of the Tapajós is bordered on both sides by bluffs. They are from 300 to 400 feet high along the lower river; but a few miles above Santarém, they retire from the eastern side and do not approach the Amazon flood-plain until some miles below Santarém. Sony VAIO VPCP11S1E/B Battery
South American pole of inaccessibility is located close to the sources of Tapajós's tributaries, near town Utiariti
The Tapajós is named after the Tapajós Indians, a tribe of Native Americans from Santarém. Sony VAIO VPC-P11S1E/B Battery
he Xingu River , also called Rio Xingu, is a 1,230-mile long, (1979 km) [1]river in north Brazil; it is a southeast tributary of the Amazon River.
The first Indian Park in Brazil was created in the river basin by the Brazilian government in the late 1950's. Sony VAIO VPCP11S1E/D Battery
This park marks the first indigenous territory recognized by the Brazilian government. Currently, fourteen tribes live on the reserve surviving with natural resources and extracting from the river most of what they need for food and water.
The Brazilian government is planning the Belo Monte Dam, which would be the world's third-largest hydroelectric dam, on the Lower Xingu. Sony VAIO VPC-P11S1E/D Battery
Construction of this dam is under legal challenge by environment and indigenous groups, who assert the dam would have negative environmental and social impacts along with reducing the flow by up to 80% along a 100 kilometres (62 mi) stretch known as the "Big Bend" (Volta Grande).[2] Sony VAIO VPCP11S1E/G Battery
In the Upper Xingu region was a highly self-organized pre-Columbian anthropogenic landscape, including deposits of agriculturalterra preta, with a network of polities each of which covered about 250 square kilometers. Sony VAIO VPC-P11S1E/G Battery
The Ucayali River (Spanish: Río Ucayali, IPA: [ˈri.o ukaˈʝali]) arises about 110 km (68 mi) north of Lake Titicaca, in theArequipa region of South America. The Amazon River takes its name close to Nauta city (100 km away from Iquitos), in the confluence among Ucayali and Marañón rivers. Sony VAIO VPCP11S1E/P Battery
The Ucayali, together with Apurímac River, Ene River, and Tambo River, is today considered the main headwater of theAmazon River, totaling a length of 2,669.9 kilometres (1,659.0 mi) from the source of the Apurímac at Nevado Mismi to the confluence of the Ucayali and Marañón Rivers: Sony VAIO VPC-P111KX/G Battery
- Apurímac River (total length): 730.7 km (454.0 mi)
- Ene River (total length): 180.6 km (112.2 mi)
- Tambo River (total length): 158.5 km (98.5 mi)
Ucayali River (confluence with Tambo River to confluence with the Marañón): 1,600.1 km (994.3 mi) Sony VAIO VPC-P111KX/P Battery
The Ucayali was first called San Miguel, then Ucayali, Ucayare, Poro, Apu-Poro, Cocama and Rio de Cuzco. Peru has fitted out many costly and ably-conducted expeditions to explore it. One of them (1867) claimed to have reached within 380 km (240 mi) of Lima, Sony VAIO VPC-P111KX/W Battery
and the little steamer "Napo" forced its way up the violent currents for 124 km (77 mi) above the junction with the Pachitea River as far as the Tambo River, 1,240 km (770 mi) from the confluence of the Ucayali with the Amazon. The "Napo" then succeeded in ascending the Urubamba branch of the Ucayali 56 km (35 mi) above its union with the Tambo, to a point 320 km (200 mi) north of Cuzco. Sony VAIO VPC-P112KX/B Battery
The remainder of the Urubamba, as shown by Bosquet in 1806 and Castelnau in 1846, is interrupted by cascades, reefs and numberless other obstacles to navigation. Torres, who explored the Alto Ucayali for the Peruvian government, gives it a length of 186 miles (299 km), Sony VAIO VPC-P112KX/D Battery
counting from the mouth of the Pachiteato the junction of the Tambo and Urubamba. Its width varies from 400–1,200 metres (1,300–3,900 ft), due to the great number of islands. The current runs from 5–6 kilometres per hour (3.1–3.7 mph), and a channel from 20–50 metres (66–160 ft) wide can always be found with a minimum depth of 1.5 m (4.9 ft). Sony VAIO VPC-P112KX/G Battery
There are five bad passes, due to the accumulation of trees and rafts of timber. Sometimes enormous rocks have fallen from the mountains and spread over the river-bed causing huge whirlpools.
Ucayali is home to the Amazon River Dolphin, giant otter, and the Amazonian Manatee, which are abundant in Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve, close to Nauta. Sony VAIO VPC-P112KX/P Battery
The river gives its name to the Ucayali Region of Peru.
Rio Guaporé is the name of a river in western Brazil along the Bolivian border. Its Bolivian name is Río Iténez.
The river has its source in the Brazilian Mato Grosso circa 150 km northeast of Pontes e Lacerda. Sony VAIO VPC-P112KX/W Battery
From this town on it flows in a westerly direction for about 120 km, where at Vila Bela da Santíssima Trindade it is joined by Rio Alegre. It flows in a northerly direction for another 180 km and from then on it forms the borderline between the Brazilian states Mato Grosso and Rondônia to the northeast, Sony VAIO VPCP113KX/B Battery
and Bolivian departmentsSanta Cruz and Beni to the southeast. Here it carries the name Iténez on the Bolivian and Guaporé on the Brazilian side, before it joins Río Mamoré at Sorpresa.
The Içá or Putumayo River is one of the tributaries of the Amazon River, west of and parallel to the Yapura. Sony VAIO VPC-P113KX/B Battery
It forms part of Colombia's border with Ecuador, as well as most of the frontier with Peru. Known as the Putumayo in the former three nations, it is called the Içá when it crosses into Brazil.
In the late 19th century, the Içá was navigated by the French explorer Jules Crevaux (1847–1882). Sony VAIO VPCP113KX/D Battery
He ascended it in a steamer drawing 6 feet (1.8 m) of water, and running day and night. He reached Cuemby, 800 miles (1,300 km) above its mouth, without finding a single rapid. Cuemby is only 200 miles (320 km) from the Pacific Ocean, in a straight line, passing through the town of Pasto in southern Colombia. Sony VAIO VPC-P113KX/D Battery
Creveaux discovered the river sediments to be free of rock to the base of the Andes; the river banks were of argillaceous earth and the bottom of fine sand.
Today the river is a major transport route. Almost the entire length of the river is navigated by boats. Sony VAIO VPCP113KX/G Battery
Cattle farming, along with the rubber trade, is also a major industry on the banks of the Içá. Rubber and balatá (a substance very much like gutta-percha, to the point where it is often called gutta-balatá) from the Içá area are shipped to Manaus, Brazil. Sony VAIO VPC-P113KX/G Battery
On March 1, 2008, Raúl Reyes and 14 of his fellow Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia guerrilla companions were killed while on the Ecuadorian side of the border by Colombian military forces.
The Marañón River (Spanish: Río Marañón, IPA: [ˈri.o maɾaˈɲon]) rises about 160 km to the northeast of LimaSony VAIO VPCP113KX/P Battery
, Peru, flows through a deeply-eroded Andean valley in a northwesterly direction, along the eastern base of the Cordilleraof the Andes, as far as 5 degrees 36' southern latitude; then it makes a great bend to the northeast, and cuts through the inland Andes, until at the Pongo de Manseriche it flows through the plains. Sony VAIO VPC-P113KX/P Battery
After its confluence withUcayali River, the Marañón is given the name of the Amazon River.
Barred by reefs, and full of rapids and impetuous currents, the Marañón has never become a commercial avenue. Sony VAIO VPCP113KX/W Battery
At the point where it makes its great bend the river meets the Chinchipe, which originates in southern Ecuador. Just downriver from this, the mountains close in on either side of the Marañón, forming narrow gorges or pongos for a length of 56 km (35 mi), where, besides numerous whirlpools, there are no less than 35 rapids, Sony VAIO VPC-P113KX/W Battery
the series concluding with three cataracts just before reaching the river Imasa or Chunchunga, near the mouth of whichCharles Marie de La Condamine embarked in the 18th century to descend the Amazon. In this region the general level of the country begins to decrease in elevation, with only a few mountain spurs, Sony VAIO VPC-P114KX/B Battery
which from time to time push as far as the river and form small-scale pongos. The Aguaruna people live on the river in this area.
The final pongo on the Marañón, the Pongo de Manseriche, is 5 km (3.1 mi) long, just below the mouth of the Rio Santiago, and between it and the old abandoned missionary station of Borja. Sony VAIO VPC-P114KX/D Battery
According to Captain Carbajal, who descended the Pongo de Manseriche in the little steamer "Napo," in 1868, it is a vast rent in the Andes about 600 m (2000 ft) deep, narrowing in places to a width of only 30 m (100 ft), the precipices "seeming to close in at the top." Sony VAIO VPC-P114KX/G Battery
Through this canyon the Marañón leaps along, at times, at the rate of 20 km/h (12 miles an hour).
After passing the Pongo de Huaracayo (or Guaracayo), the cerros, or hills, gradually disappear, and for a distance of about 30 km (19 mi) the river is full of islands, Sony VAIO VPC-P114KX/P Battery
and there is nothing visible from its low banks but an immense forest-covered plain known as the selva baja ("low jungle") or Peruvian Amazonia, home to indigenous peoples such as the Urarinaof the Chambira Basin[1], the Candoshi, and the Cocama-Cocamilla peoples. Sony VAIO VPC-P114KX/W Battery
The Marañón river serves also as a frame for one of the most important novels of the Peruvian writer Ciro Alegría: La serpiente de oro (1935).
The Teles Pires or Rio São Manuel is a 1370 km [1] long river in Brasil.
The river flows through the state of Mato Grosso and its lower part is border between states Mato Grosso and Pará. Sony VAIO VPCP115JC Battery
At its mouth it joins Juruena River and together they form the Tapajós, which is one of the biggest tributaries of the Amazon River
The most important settlement along the river is Alta Floresta.
The Iriri River is a tributary of the Xingu River in Brazil, in the state of Pará. Sony VAIO VPCF115FG/B Battery
It is 1,300 km (810 mi) long making it the 116th longest river in the world ( with Krishna River , India ) and the 15th longest in the Amazon Basin. The headwaters are the traditional home of the Panará people.
The Juruena River is a 1240 km long river in west-central Brazil, in the state of Mato Grosso. Sony VAIO VPCF116FGBI Battery
For the last 190 km of its lower part the river becomes the border between the states Mato Grosso and Amazonas. It finally joins the Teles Piresriver to form the Tapajós river, which is one of the biggest tributaries to the Amazon River. The river is the site of the Juruena National Park as well as the Salto Augusto Falls. Sony VAIO VPCF117FJ/W Battery
Juruena National Park was created on June 5, 2006, and covers 19,000 km².
The Madre de Dios River, homonymous to the Peruvian region it runs through, flows into the Beni River inBolivia, which then turns northward into Brazil, where it joins with the Mamore River to become the Madeira River. Sony VAIO VPCF117HG/BI Battery
The Madeira is a tributary to the Amazon River.
The Madre de Dios is an important waterway for the department of Madre de Dios, particularly Puerto Maldonado, the largest town in the area, and the capital of the department. Sony VAIO VPCF118FJ/W Battery
Mango farming and Gold mining are among the many industries on its beaches. Other important industries the Madre de Dios provides are selective logging and farming, both of which are serious environmental problems. Along the length of the river there are several national parks and reserves, Sony VAIO VPCF119FC Battery
notably Tambopata-Candamo National Park, Manu National Park (also known as Manu Biosphere Reserve) and Bahuaja-Sonene National Park.
The Huallaga River is a tributary of the Marañón River, part of the Amazon Basin. Old names for this river include Guallaga and Rio de los Motilones. Sony VAIO VPCF119FC/BI Battery
The Huallaga is born on the slopes of the Andes in central Peru and joins the Marañón before the latter reaches the Ucayali River to form the Amazon. Its main affluents are the Monzón, Mayo, Biabo, Abiseo and Tocache rivers. Coca is grown in most of those valleys, which are also exposed to periodic floods. Sony VAIO VPCF119FJ/BI Battery
For nearly its entire length the Huallaga is an impetuous torrent running through a succession of gorges. It has forty-two rapids (pongos) and it crosses the Andes, forming the Pongo de Aguirre gorge. From this point, 140 miles (230 km) from the Amazon, the Huallaga can be ascended by larger river boats (lanchas) to the port city ofYurimaguas, Loreto. Sony VAIO VPCF11AFJ Battery
The Huallaga is divided in two, before and after it passes the city of Juanjuí: the Alto Huallaga (Upper Huallaga) and the Bajo Huallaga (Lower Huallaga), because the terrain changes from the slopes of the Andes to the swamps of the Amazon Rainforest.Sony VAIO VPCF11AGJ Battery
Between the Huallaga and the Ucayali lies the famous "Pampa del Sacramento," a level region of stoneless alluvial lands covered with thick, dark forests, first entered by Christian missionaries in 1726. It is about 300 miles (480 km) long, from north to south, and varies in width from 40 to 100 kilometers. Sony VAIO VPCF11AHJ Battery
Many streams, navigable for canoes, penetrate this region from the Ucayali and the Huallaga. In addition to peasants, it is still occupied by many indigenous communities, such as the Cocama-Cocamilla.
Eric Fleming who played Trail Boss Gil Favor in the long running Western series Rawhide was killed in the Huallaga River. Sony VAIO VPCF11JFX/B Battery
During the shooting of location shots on the Huallaga River on September 28, 1966, Fleming dove (intentionally?) from a dug-out canoe after paddling it beyond the rapids. Sony VAIO VPCF11M1E Battery
His body was lost in the turbulent water and was not recovered until three days later. Sony VAIO VPCF11M1E/H Battery,Sony VAIO VPCF11MFX/B Battery,Sony VAIO VPCF11S1E Battery
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