River reef. The year-round width of the river is as much as 6 miles as far as 100 miles upriver. Occasionally these bluffs are undercut by the river as it swings to and fro across the alluvium, producing the terra caída, or “fallen land,” so often described by Amazon travelers. In fact, the Amazon River … Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. There the mouth of the river is 40 miles (64 km) wide. Alexis Rosenfeld, deep diver and photographer, said: “These dives are particularly challenging: the water is loaded with sediments from the Amazon river, currents are very strong and we have no visibility when we start descending. The average depth of the Brazil section of the Amazon River is about 150 feet, with maximum depths reaching about 300 feet. At its deepest point, the river reaches a depth of approximately 720 feet. Only the Nile is longer in terms of total length, but the … The Pará is fed chiefly by the Tocantins River, which enters the Pará southwest of Belém. Mamoré’s tributary, the Guaporé, opens up to the Mato Grosso Plateau. 2. 4. There they pick up the heavy sediment loads that account for their whitewater designation. On what body of water did the ancient city of Troy lie? There are more than 1,000 tributaries of the Amazon that flow into it from the Guiana Highlands, the Brazilian Highlands, and the Andes. The Amazon River’s main outlets are the two channels north of Marajó Island, a lowland somewhat larger in size than Denmark, through a cluster of half-submerged islets and shallow sandbanks. Andean lakes are found at elevations usually above 3,500 m. It is the greatest river of South America and the largest drainage system in the world in terms of the volume of its flow and the area of its basin. There the mouth of the river is 40 miles (64 km) wide. Caimans are both bigger and smaller than alligators. The Amazon River is the second-longest river in the world, after the Nile, at about 4,075 miles. Its drainage area of about 292,000 square miles (756,000 square km) includes that of the Branco, its major left-bank tributary, with its source in the Guiana Highlands. The Amazon River is the second longest river in the world (the Nile River in Africa is the longest) … But for Todd and Kelley Moen, the thrill of discovering a culture was more profound than the thrill of a tug on the line. However, some slow-flowing river channel water bodies can be considered lakes in function. The Amazon River Coming a close second after the Nile as the world’s longest river, the Amazon River sets the record in terms of the sheer volume of water that it carries – a mind-boggling average discharge of 219,000 m 3 /sec of water. It is bounded irregularly by low bluffs 20 to 100 feet (6 to 30 metres) high, beyond which the older, undulating upland extends both north and south to the horizon. The Amazon is well known for a number of reasons. NOAA Hurricane Forecast Maps Are Often Misinterpreted — Here's How to Read Them. In The Boiling River: Adventure and Discovery in the Amazon, he travels deep into the Peruvian jungle to unravel the mystery. In the section of the river between Manacapuru and Óbidos, the depth ranges between 66 and 85 feet. Six of these tributaries—the Japurá (Caquetá in Colombia), Juruá, Madeira, Negro, Purus, and Xingu rivers—are each more than 1,000 miles (1,600 km) long; the Madeira River exceeds 2,000 miles (3,200 km) from source to mouth. Overall, caimans are smaller than their … The mother river, the Marañón above Iquitos, rises in the central Peruvian Andes at an elevation of 15,870 feet (4,840 metres) in a small lake in the Cordillera Huayhuash above Cerro de Pasco. It’s the second-longest river in the world. The Amazon River Basin, Amazonia, is the largest drainage system in the world in terms of volume of flow and area of basin. This depth makes the Congo River about 64 feet deeper than the second deepest river in the world, which is the Yangtze River in China. The Amazon River carries more water than any other river in the world. Over 5 million square kilometers, actually. Other tributaries of the Negro, such as the Vaupés and Guainía, drain eastward from the Colombian Oriente. Rivers further north begin to drop as the dry season moves north during September and October, making the Igapo Acu and the Matupiri Rivers prime destinations at this time. After an expedition to Peru to locate the Amazon’s precise source, the team described a different starting point. In 2007, however, the BBC reported that a team of Brazilian researchers challenged that long-held belief. Silt from its turbid waters has choked its lower valley with sediments; where it joins the Amazon below Manaus, it has contributed to the formation of the 200-mile- (320-km-) long island of Tupinambarana. As a brown water river, it represents a rare ecosystem that encompasses species from two different types of rivers including the silt, white water (similar to the Amazon River) and the black, acidic water (like the Rio Negro) species. The sedimentary axis of the Amazon basin comprises two distinct groups of landforms: the várzea, or floodplain of alluvium of Holocene age (i.e., up to about 11,700 years old), and the terra firme, or upland surfaces of Pliocene and Pleistocene materials (those from 11,700 to 5,300,000 years old) that lie well above the highest flood level. The Amazon River: The Amazon River flows for roughly 4,000 miles through the northern parts of South America. The source of the Amazon was found in 1996. Canoe on the Negro River in the Amazon Rainforest, Amazonas state, northern Brazil. Where the silt-laden waters of the Amazon (Solimões in Brazil), derived from these streams, meet those of the Negro at Manaus, the darker and hence warmer and sediment-free waters of the latter tend to be overrun by those of the Amazon, creating a striking colour boundary that is erased by turbulence downstream. The dimensions of the Amazon River vary based on the season, with widths between 1 and 6.2 miles during low river stage and widths as great as 35 miles during the rainy season, according to the Smithsonian National Zoo. The port city’s link with the main Amazon channel is either north along the ocean frontage of Marajó or following the deep but narrow furos (channels) of Breves that bound the island on the west and southwest and link the Pará River with the Amazon. The Amazon river is the largest river in the world. That's enough water to … The Amazon river starts in Peru and ends at Atlantic Ocean. The Huallaga and Ucayali, major right-bank affluents of the Marañón, originate considerably farther south. CEO Compensation and America's Growing Economic Divide. The river traverses some of the least populous and least disturbed parts of the Amazon basin, including several national parks, national forests, and indigenous reserves. The Jatapu River is a little known sub-tributary of the Amazon River. In the Colombian Amazon region, the upper Putumayo River area is threatened by unsustainable agriculture and poorly planned development, but is also extremely vulnerable to increased frequency of droughts and flooding due to climate change. Amazon River - Amazon River - Physiography of the river course: The Amazon River’s main outlets are the two channels north of Marajó Island, a lowland somewhat larger in size than Denmark, through a cluster of half-submerged islets and shallow sandbanks. The port city of Belém, Brazil, is on the deep water of the Pará River estuary south of Marajó. [ Discover how Ruzo collected water from this dangerous river. Believe it or not, there’s been wide speculation over the real … The headwaters of the deeply entrenched Apurímac and Urubamba, tributaries at the confluence of the Ucayali, reach to within 100 miles (160 km) of Lake Titicaca, the farthest of any stream in the system from the great river’s mouth. Yes, the fly-fishing was fine deep in the Amazon. There are two basic lake types in the Amazon Basin separated by elevation. The second-longest river in the world, the Amazon flows about 3,900 miles from northern Peru across northern Brazil to a wide delta on the Atlantic Ocean. Aerial view of the Amazon River, South America. The discharge of the river is measured at about 6.350 million cubic feet per second annually. Where such blackwater tributaries enter the main river, they are sometimes blocked off to form funnel-shaped freshwater lakes or estuaries, as at the mouth of the Tapajós. Traveling more than 4,000 miles from its Andean birthplace to the Atlantic Ocean, the Amazon transports a massive amount of … Thermal signatures of groundwater suggest that the Hamza flows west to east just like the Amazon, except at a depth of about 13,000 feet (4,000 meters) below the Earth's surface. The amazon river is quite deep, reaching depths from 130 ft to 300 ft deep. In contrast, the Madeira River, which joins the Amazon some 50 miles (80 km) downstream from Manaus, and its principal affluents—the Purus, Juruá, Ucayali, and Huallaga on the right or southern bank and the Japurá, Putumayo (Içá in Brazil), and Napo from the northwest—have their source in the geologically youthful and tectonically active Andes. Beyond its first cataract, 600 miles (970 km) up the river, its three major affluents—the Madre de Dios, the Beni, and the Mamoré—provide access to the rubber-rich forests of the Bolivian Oriente; the meandering Purus and Juruá rivers that flank the Madeira on the west are also important tributaries that lead into those forests. At its deepest, the Amazon River is 100 metres (330 ft) deep. The Amazon River started to form over 2000 million years ago when the highlands were formed on Gondwanaland. But it’s totally worth it when the halo of my light beams reveals the Amazon Reef. When South American plate collided with the Naza plate, the impact formed the Andres Mountains in Peru. Protecting River Habitat. By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. The Amazon River is the largest river in the world in terms of its discharge into the Atlantic Ocean and either the longest or second longest river in the world, contending with the Nile River for that honor. The Amazon River originates in Peru. Background. Some rivers flow as clearwater during the rainy season and blackwater during the dry season. More than 3,700 kilometres (2,300 mi) from its mouth, upstream from the city of Iquitos, Peru, the Amazon divides into the Marañón and the Ucayali Rivers. At the city of Óbidos, Brazil, where the river width is some 1.25 miles (2 km), a low range of relatively hard rock narrows the otherwise broad floodplain. It is estimated that one-fifth of all the water that runs off the Earth’s surface is carried by the Amazon. The largest oceangoing ships can ascend the river 1,000 miles to the city of Manaus, Brazil, while lesser freight and passenger vessels can reach Iquitos, Peru, 1,300 miles (2,090 km) farther upstream, at any time of year. 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