Río Cauca
| Río Cauca | ||
 Middle reaches of the Río Cauca in the department of Antioquia |
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| Data | ||
| location |
 Colombia
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| River system | Río Magdalena | |
| Drain over | Río Magdalena → Caribbean Sea | |
| Headwaters | 20 km south of the Puracé volcano , Central Cordillera 2 ° 7 ′ 24 ″ N , 76 ° 26 ′ 4 ″ W |
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| Source height | approx. 3300 m | |
| muzzle | south of Mompós in the Río Magdalena Coordinates: 8 ° 53 ′ 33 " N , 74 ° 28 ′ 4" W 8 ° 53 ′ 33 " N , 74 ° 28 ′ 4" W |
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| Mouth height | approx. 15 m | |
| Height difference | approx. 3285 m | |
| Bottom slope | approx. 2.6 ‰ | |
| length | approx. 1250 km | |
| Catchment area | 59,840 km² | |
| Discharge at the Tres Cruces gauge (at the mouth) A Eo : 59,840 km² |
MQ Mq |
2364 m³ / s 39.5 l / (s km²) |
| Left tributaries | Rìo San Juan , Río Tarazá | |
| Right tributaries | Río Pozo, Río Arma, Río San Andrés, Río Nechí | |
| Reservoirs flowed through | Salvajina dam , Ituango dam | |
| Big cities | Popayán , Cali , Buga , Tuluá , Cartago | |
| Medium-sized cities | Santander de Quilichao , Puerto Tejada , La Virginia , Santa Fe de Antioquia , Caucasia , Cáceres | |
| Small towns | Nechí | |
 Río Cauca, about 500 km above the mouth on the border of the departments of Caldas and Antioquia |
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The Río Cauca is an approximately 1250 km long left tributary of the Río Magdalena in Colombia and runs between the western and central cordillera of the northern Andes .
River course
The Río Cauca rises in the Parque Nacional Natural Puracé at an altitude of about 3300 m , 20 km south of the Puracé volcano in the Central Cordillera. The Río Cauca initially flows about 100 kilometers to the northwest. He passes the city of Popayán . The river then turns towards the north-northeast. It flows through a high valley up to 40 km wide along the eastern flank of the Western Cordillera. At river kilometer 1110 it is dammed by the Salvajina dam over a length of 23 km. At river kilometer 970 he passes the eastern edge of the metropolis of Cali . At river kilometer 670, north of the city of Cartago , the high valley ends and the Río Cauca cuts through the mountains for the next 400 kilometers in a northerly direction. At river kilometer 325 the Ituango dam is currently being built on the Río Cauca. For the lower 300 kilometers, the river turns north-northeast. He leaves the mountains and reaches the north Colombian lowlands. The Río Nechí , the most important tributary, meets the Río Cauca 125 km above the mouth . Near the city of Mompós , this flows into the east parallel running Río Magdalena, whose largest tributary it is. With a length of about 1250 km, it is almost as long as the Río Magdalena to its confluence, but due to its narrower catchment area, it only has a good half of the water on average.
Hydrology
The Río Cauca drains an area of 59,840 km². The mean discharge is 2364 m³ / s.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Andrea Torres Gallardo, Gabriel A. Peñaranda Gómez: Regionalizacion de caudales minimos por metodos estadisticos de la cuenca Magdalena Cauca (PDF; 814 kB) , Bogotá 2006, p. 56
