AMAZON RIVER

Jan 29, 2010 Lorenzo Martinez Bernal RIOS - RESERVOIRS - LAGOS 7

AMAZON RIVER

THE AMAZON RIVER, LOCATED IN SOUTH AMERICA, It is the longest river,The most abundant and the one BASIN larger surface of our planet,Length of ( 6800 KM ), EXCEEDS THE NILE RIVER IN MORE THAN FORTY KILOMETERS .

Before the conquest, the river did not have a unique name; Conversely, indigenous appointed interchangeably to different sections with voices as Paranaguazú (Great Pariente del Mar), Guyerma, Solimões, etc. In 1500, Vicente Yanez Pinzon, commander of an expedition of Spanish exploration, He became the first European to venture into the river after discovering that its waters were navigable and drinkable. Finch watercourse called the Santa Maria River Dulce Mar, which it was eventually shortened to Mar Dulce (name that also occurred in those times the Rio de la Plata). For some years later 1502 He was also known as Rio Grande and Orellana. Pinzon's companions christened the Desaguadero as Maranon, Voice of likely indigenous origin. It is also possible that the name derives from the Spanish tangle, on behalf of the enormous difficulties these men found when exploring the area. Other sources say that the river's name is derived from the sea, to see that they could not see from one shore opposite, They wondered Latin: Mare an non? (It is sea or not?). In any case, the designation has persisted until today in the Brazilian state of Maranhao and the namesake river in Peru.

The voice comes from Amazon river Amazon, given the Marañón by Francisco de Orellana after facing a local ethnic group in which men and women alike defended. Orellana derived the name from the Greek myth of the Amazons warriors Asia and Africa, narrated by Herodotus and Diodorus. Nevertheless, it is very likely that the word Amazon was a false deformation paronomásico friend of an Indian word whose pronunciation to Spanish ears was like “Amazon”, Indian word meaning “tripper boats”; this especially among marayoara, they could see the tremendous macareo (“pororoca”) This causes the contact river at its mouth on the Atlantic Ocean.

Traditionally it is assigned to the Amazon second in total length, behind the Nile, although it has never existed a general consensus on what are acceptable measurement points. Recent research, however, add a 740 km over the channel, what definitely would put at the top of the ranking of the world's longest rivers.

According to the most conservative measurements, the river is about 6.762 km long. Nevertheless, a Peruvian-Brazilian expedition has completed its work in June 2007 He has calculated 6.800 km.[2] Sections presents great variability in the channel. At the mouth of the distance from one bank to the other it is about 330 km, measured from Cabo do Norte to Punto Patijoca and including the island of Marajo (pronúnciese: Maray), the size of Denmark and the delta of the river Pará (final stretch of the river Tocantins), about 60 km wide. The distance of the mouth of the Amazon, formed by a kind of delta masked by the action of the tides and sea currents, is about 100 km around.

Currently, by recent research reports, The Geographical Society of Lima, entities backed by the international scientific community, He ended the controversy over the origin of the Amazon River in determining which rises in the Andes of southern Peru and is the longest in the world, above the River Nile in more than forty kilometers.

Since its birth in the gorge Apacheta, on the slopes of Nevado Mismi, in the department of Arequipa, a 5.150 meters, to its mouth in the Atlantic after crossing Peru and Brazil, reaches a length of 7.062 kilometers.

This makes 391 kilometers longer than the Nile, in Africa, extending 6.671 km, they said the expert Zaniel Novoa, Geographical Society of Lima, and Polish journalist and explorer Jacek Palkiewicz, who in 1996 He led a multinational expedition to the headwaters of the Amazon. He went on to establish that measurement, that after 12 years was validated by major entities of the international scientific community. These include the Geographical Society of London, the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Brazilian Institute for Space Research.

Following the coast, slightly north of the North Cape and 160 km, there is a belt of partially submerged islands and shallow mudflats. This particular geography, whose depth does not exceed 7 m, born the phenomenon of pororoca, a wave that advances with a roar of increasing intensity, to some 15 a 25 km/h, forming a water wall 1,5 a 4 m high. This dynamic is the reason for the absence of delta aforementioned: the ocean quickly drags, during reflow or high tide, the vast volume of sludge accumulated, partially preventing the formation of intervening islands.

CASCADE San Rafael

The first European who sailed in the vicinity of the Amazon River estuary was Américo Vespucio in 1499. After the Spanish Vicente Yáñez Pinzón and Diego de Lope explored the islands that are part of the huge estuary. The first descent of the Amazon from the Andes by Europeans was made by Francisco de Orellana 1541. The first ascent of the river by a European was in 1638 by Pedro Teixeira, Portuguese, who reversed the route of Orellana and reached Quito through the Napo River. He returned in 1639 with the Jesuit fathers Acuna and Artieda, delegates of the viceroy of Peru to accompany Teixeira.

Francisco de Orellana departed from Guayaquil 4 February 1541; He reaches Quito and reorganizes his motorcade made up 23 mens. Orellana and his men held several battles with warring tribes that came in its wake, thus suffering several setbacks. As time passed, every day the expedition were dying, supplies were depleted, until we have nothing to eat. It was already December and most climbers realized that the expedition would not reach the place sought, so they began to revolt. But such was the faith and perseverance, he 12 February 1542, the sea is discovered immense river.

The name "Amazon River" was placed by Francisco de Orellana after having a fight with a bold and warrior women, with which it fought the 24 June 1542.

The Amazon River rises on the slopes of Mount Mismi, in Arequipa, Peru. Among the various names given to the Amazon River along its course, highlight, successively, the following: Lloqueta, Apurimac, one, Tambo, Ucayali, Marañón and Amazonas. When the river enters Brazil Solimões river was renamed for a good stretch. Then reassumes the name of the Amazon River at the confluence with the Black River.

After the confluence of the Ucayali and Apurimac river moves over the Andean territory and into a flood plain and gently undulating alluvial.

also runs along the Peruvian-Colombian border and then makes tripartite border with Brazil.

Already in Brazil, the Black River joins its flow to the muddy Amazon, observing the striking contrast of colors of the waters, virtually no intermingle for a 230 km, due to the difference in density and temperature and, especially, Similar to the depth and speed of the two streams at the point of confluence.

At some points, long distances, the river is divided into two main courses with side channels connected by a complicated system of rivulets, cutting the islands Igapo (which rarely exceed 5 m elevation on the lowest level in smaller islets.

In the narrows of Óbidos, a 600 km Sea, the river narrows, running in a single stream 1,6 km wide and 300 m depth, with an average speed 7 km/h.

From Canaria Island on the Great Bend to the Black River. 1.000 km downstream, only very low land is, similar to those of the mouth. Vast tracts of land are completely waterlogged, even deeply, hovering over the water only treetops.

From near the mouth of the Black River to Serpa, on the opposite bank the Madeira River, the banks of the Amazon are low, starting to rise near Manaus, forming gentle hills. en Obidos, the system evolves to become a canyon 17 m surrounded by low hills. The lower Amazon could have once been a gulf in the Atlantic, whose water eroded hills near Óbidos.

Just a 10% water carried by the river enters the mighty stream of Óbidos, very little of which originates in the northern slope of the valley. The Amazon drainage area west of Óbidos is about 5 million square kilometers and east, from 1 million km² (approximately 20%).

In the lower river, the north bank consists of a series of steep mesas that stretch for some 240 km from the opposite bank at the mouth of the Xingu River (en español pronunciase Shingu o Šingu) to Monte Alegre.

These structures are cut in terraces. Monte Alegre reaches a height of several hundred meters. In the southern margin, Xingu runs on almost interrupted low canyons line bordering the alluvial plain and extend almost to Santarém. The set is a series of large curves finally twist to the southwest and merges with the hills that form the valley of terraced bank of the Tapajos River (or better, Tapaŷós).

The Amazon river system has over 1.000 major tributaries, It is over 25 branches exceeding 1.000 km in length. It is usually considered that the Amazon River nominally near Nauta in Peru, at the confluence of the Maranon and Ucayali rivers, but on reaching the triple border, to enter Brazilian territory has a stretch known as Solimoes river, which leads to the confluence with the Black River, in Manaus. Downstream regains the name of Amazon River. Thus, to facilitate the location of the tributaries, It has divided the river system of the Amazon River in five sections: Ucayali – Cashew – Amazon – Solimões – Amazon. further, It added the split branch of the Pará River, to collect the Tocantins river basin, in puridad, It is not an Amazon tributary, although sometimes is added. Table tributaries are marked with a (d) those located south, This is downstream on the right bank, and a (i) those located north, This is downstream on the left bank of the river.

IGUAZU WATERFALLS

CAUDAL

Amazon carries more water than the Mississippi, the Nile and the Yangtze together; your area or drainage basin is also the largest in the world. The volume of water taken towards the Atlantic is enormous: with an annual average 230.000 m³/s, reaches up 300.000 m³ / s during the rainy season. Indeed, Amazon is responsible for a fifth of all freshwater incorporated into the oceans of Earth. further, this water is perfectly drinkable offshore from the mouth, to a distance from which the coast is no longer visible. Atlantic Ocean salinity is considerably lower in a radius of several thousand kilometers around that point north of its mouth: It is recalled that in this area the sea currents bring salt water towards the mouth and not the reverse.

The area or river drainage basin is approximately 7.050.000 km², a 40% of South America. His nascent extend from the 5th North latitude to 15 degrees south latitude. Walk the warm and humid jungle (una pluviselva) the world's largest, Amazonian expanse. The pluviselva Amazon (until the beginning of the current global warming) It has been characterized by its almost constant convective rain, this is: the high water flow solar heat evaporates from the surface of the Amazon basin amounts imbrífera high altitude precisely thermals (vertical thermals) until, to reach high areas of the atmosphere, cooler, it condenses into droplets and they almost immediately become, on the same basin, in heavy rains, which forms a natural water cycle feedback.

Seasonal rains give rise to major flooding along the river and its tributaries. The average depth at the peak of the rainy season is about 40 m and the average width is about 40 km (see: Barzea). This starts in November and goes until June, then decreases at the end of October. The flooding of the Black River is partially asynchronously: the rainy season does not start in this valley until February or March. For June is at its peak, and the descent of the water itself now in line with Amazon. The Madeira River has a two-month lag, beginning to grow in September and starting the withdrawal in April.

The abundance of water in the Amazon system is due to the fact that much of the territory is located in the intertropical convergence zone, where rain fall is high. Also the region is in the exchange area where moisture winds of the Atlantic is pushed westward and eventually forced to climb over the Andes. This rise cooled air masses, creating heavy rains that rush over a huge area, process unmatched worldwide.

Soft alluvial plain (llamada vargem) which constitutes most of the territory through which the river runs, It is covered up 15 m water. The level at Iquitos is 6 m, in Teffe, 15 m, en Obidos, 11 m and Para 4 m above the minimum level river characterizes the dry season.

SOURCES OF AMAZON

FLORA AND FAUNA

All the flora and fauna of the American intertropical humid jungle is present in the Amazon.

There are countless species of plants, thousands of species of birds, countless amphibians and millions of insects still unclassified.

The fauna is varied, from the smallest insects to large mammals like the jaguar, the Puma, tapir and several species of deer. There are also reptiles like turtles, alligators, caimans and snakes. There are birds and fish of all species, feathers and scales. In the lagoons along the Amazon Victoria Regia plant flowers, a kind of lily whose circular leaves reach more than one meter in diameter and sometimes, until 5 m, what he has given rise to the myth that one of these sheets can hold a person, which is false.

The vast equatorial forest hides abundant wildlife, pending a complete classification. In the Amazon there 4.000 butterfly species, more of 3.000 freshwater fish, 1.700 bird and 20% of primate species on the planet. Under his extraordinary lushness there are different habitats and generic diversity of the animal world. Biological wealth is because for millions of years the Amazon ecosystem has remained unchanged.

Among its waters several of the largest freshwater fish found,arapaimas,Pirabs,Pirrrs,Pyara,already,tambaqui,Tucunare,many species of siluriformes,freshwater stingray, electric eel etc.

Pirrara

ARAPAIMA

TAMBAQUI

surubí

PIRAIBA

Pyara

ALREADY

VIDEO

It is so broad its contribution to species of fish and aquatic plants that list them all is not easy. For fans of aquarium, It is the source that provides the largest number of fish species that populate the stores and aquariums around the world.

There is also a lot of amphibians of all kinds, like frogs, toads, tritones, Salamanders and amphibians even without knowing.

After he cross it in one of his expeditions, the famous oceanographer Jacques-Yves Cousteau went on to state that "there are more species of fish in the Amazon than in the Atlantic Ocean".

A SALUTE TO FRIENDS PESCAPROFESIONAL

• WATER, CAUDAL, fish, FISHING, LONG, BIG FISH AMAZON, fishing, RIO WORLD'S LARGEST, RIOS, SELVA AMAZONICA, SOUTH AMERICA