Meeting of Waters
3°8′12″S 59°54′17″W / 3.13667°S 59.90472°W
The Meeting of Waters (Template:Lang-pt) is the confluence between the dark (blackwater) Rio Negro and the pale sandy-colored (whitewater) Amazon River, referred to as the Solimões River in Brazil upriver of this confluence. For 6 km (3.7 mi) the two rivers' waters run side by side without much mixing. It is one of the main tourist attractions of Manaus, Brazil.[1]
This phenomenon is due to the differences in temperature, speed, and amount of dissolved sediments in the waters of the two rivers. The Rio Negro flows at near 2 km/h (1.2 mph) at a temperature of 28 °C (82 °F), while the Rio Solimões flows between 4 and 6 km/h (2.5–3.7 mph) at a temperature of 22 °C (72 °F).[1] The light-colored water is rich with sediment from the river bed since the Andes Mountains, whereas the black water, running from the Colombian hills and interior jungles, is nearly sediment-free and colored by decayed leaf and plant matter.[2]
Smaller-scale meeting of waters of the Amazon river also occurs in the locations of Santarém (Brazil) and Iquitos (Peru).
References
- ^ a b "Spectacular confluence of the Negro and Solimões rivers, whose waters are separated for several miles". Visit Brazil. Retrieved 2020-01-25.
- ^ "Meeting of the Waters". earthobservatory.nasa.gov. NASA. 7 September 2012. Retrieved 9 November 2020.
Media related to Negro-Amazon confluence at Wikimedia Commons