Río Madre de Dios

Río Madre de Dios Amaro Mayu, Manutata
Ferries across the Río Madre de Dios near Puerto Maldonado
Data
location	Peru , Bolivia
River system	Amazon
Drain over	Río Beni  → Rio Madeira  → Amazon  → Atlantic Ocean
Confluence of	Río Alto Madre de Dios and Río Manú 12 ° 16 ′ 17 ″  S , 70 ° 55 ′ 58 ″  W
Source height	approx.  280  m
muzzle	near Riberalta in the Río Beni coordinates: 10 ° 59 ′ 11 ″  S , 66 ° 5 ′ 2 ″  W 10 ° 59 ′ 11 ″  S , 66 ° 5 ′ 2 ″  W.
Mouth height	approx.  125  m
Height difference	approx. 155 m
Bottom slope	approx. 0.17 ‰
length	918 km (without source rivers) with Manú 1398 km with Alto Madre de Dios approx. 1210 km
Catchment area	125,287 km²
Discharge at the mouth of the A Eo : 125,287 km²	MQ Mq	6372 m³ / s 50.9 l / (s km²)
Left tributaries	Río Los Amigos , Río Las Piedras
Right tributaries	Río Blanco , Río Chilive , Río Colorado , Río Inambari , Río Tambopata , Río Heath , Río Manupare
Medium-sized cities	Puerto Maldonado
Communities	Puerto Heath, Puerto Pardo
Ports	Puerto Maldonado
Navigable	from Boca Manú
Main hydrological strand of the Madeira river system
River network with the Río Madre de Dios in the Beni lowlands
The Alto Madre de Dios before entering the plain of the Amazon basin
Riparian vegetation on solid rock and rainforest on saprolithic weathered sediments (above) on the Río Madre de Dios
Meandering course of the Madre de Dios in Bolivia
Course with tributaries

The Río Madre de Dios ( Spanish for “Mother of God River”; Quechua : Amaru Mayu - “River of the Sacred Serpent”; Araona : Manutata - “Father of the Rivers”) is a left tributary of the Río Beni in southeastern Peru and northern Bolivia .

Its headwaters are in the very rainy Cordillera Carabaya in the Madre de Dios department . The total of almost 1400 km long Río Madre de Dios has at its mouth with 6372 m³ / s a ​​larger water flow than the Río Beni with 2829 m³ / s and this in turn a larger water flow at the confluence with the Río Mamoré , so that the hydrological Main strand of the Rio Madeira runs.

Source rivers

The river takes its name from the confluence of the Río Alto Madre de Dios and the much larger Río Manú near the town of Puerto Manú .

Río Alto Madre de Dios

The Río Madre de Dios rises as Río Huaisampilla together with tributaries of similar size in the Cordillera de Carabaya (Nevado de Pucará). The sub-Andean marginal chains that accompany the foot of the mountain in the east lead to the early unification of the watercourses directed transversely to them and are finally broken by them in ravines. After passing the gorge of the Pongo de Coñec , the Río Alto Madre de Dios flows almost in a straight line to the northeast in a branched, gravel-rich river bed, following the gentle slope of the gently rolling Andean foothills. At the confluence with the Río Manú, it has an average of around 570 m³ / s of water. The length of the river is about 250 kilometers.

Río Manú

The upper Río Manú (Araona: "river") flows northwards from its headwaters in the Andean marginal chains, which are covered by dense foggy and mountain rainforests , and then swings strongly meandering to the southeast. From the right it receives most of the tributaries, of which the Río Providencia and the Río Pinquina are the largest. The largest part of its exceptionally species-rich catchment area is protected in the Manú National Park and may not be entered in the extensive core zone. With an average water flow of around 920 m³ / s at the mouth, the Manú represents the actual upper reaches of the Río Madre de Dios hydrologically , which also maintains the direction of the Manú. The length information ranges from 356 km to a more plausible 465 km.

Course as Madre de Dios

Below Boca de Manú, the Río Madre de Dios gradually swings from its south-eastern flow direction, which is initially parallel to the Andes, to the northeast, the main direction of the rivers in the southern Amazon basin . The first of numerous right tributaries, the Río Azul, flows out at Puerto Tahuantinsuyo. A little later, the Río Colorado flows into the upper reaches of which large areas are almost devastated as a result of largely illegal gold mining, and whose water has a high level of mercury. The largest tributary is the Río Inambari , which comes from the Andean marginal chains, and the longest is the Río Las Piedras, which flows from the left . Opposite in the confluence of the Río Tambopata lies the only important city on the Río Madre de Dios, Puerto Maldonado , capital of the Madre de Dios region and a commercial center with a small airport. The city officially bears the title: Capital de la Biodiversidad del Perú (Biodiversity Capital of Peru). From here the river is also called Bajo Madre de Dios (Lower M.).

After almost 460 kilometers, the Madre de Dios reaches the border to Bolivia in the small town of Puerto Heath . It continues to flow northeast, a direction that the current maintains under other names as far as the Amazon. After a further 483 kilometers of the river, it joins the Río Beni at Riberalta . The river meanders along its entire length and therefore changes its course and length constantly. Numerous oxbow lakes accompany its course.

In some maps, the 160 km long stretch of river between Riberalta and the mouth of the Río Beni is also referred to as the Río Madre de Dios , but official Bolivian maps show it as the Río Beni .

The Río Madre de Dios is the main artery of an otherwise very little developed area, interrupted, however, by smaller rapids. Little land is cultivated on its banks, mainly as subsistence agriculture and for mango cultures . The Bahuaja Sonene National Park and the Tambopata-Candamo National Park have also been established on the southern Peruvian tributaries .

Tributaries

Larger tributaries are (downstream sequence):

• Río Alto Madre de Dios 250 km, 570 m³ / s (right source river)
• Río Manú 440 km, 920 m³ / s (left source river)
• Río Colorado 100 km, 500 m³ / s (right)
• Río Los Amigos (left)
• Río Inambari 440 km, 1310 m³ / s (right)
• Río Las Piedras (or Río Tacuatimanu) 610 km, 780 m³ / s (left)
• Río Tambopata 400 km, 1240 m³ / s (right)
• Río Heath 220 km, 130 m³ / s (Peruvian-Bolivian border river on 200 km; right)
• Río Manupare (Río Sena) 240 km, 190 m³ / s (Bolivia, right)

See also

• List of the longest rivers on earth

Web links

Commons : Río Madre de Dios  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Length over Alto Madre de Dios consisting of:
   Alto Madre de Dios , 250 km (measured in Google Earth),
   Madre de Dios (Peruvian share), 480 km (Autoridad Nacional del Agua, Perú: Vigilancia de la calidad del agua en los rios Tambopata, Malinowski e Inambari - Madre de Dios , PDF; 7.3 MB. Informe No. 176-2010-ANA-DCPRH / BCT. Lima 2010) and
   Madre de Dios (Bolivian. share), 483 km (Manejo Integrado y Sostenible de los Recursos Hídricos Transfronterizos en la Cuenca del Río Amazonas considerando la Variablidad Climática y el Cambio Climático: Visión Boliviana de la Cuenca Amazónica . La Paz 2007, p. 14)
   Length over Manú consisting of:
   Manu with Madre de Dios (peruan . Share), 915 km (Ministerio des Agricultura, Direcciòn de Conservaciòn y Planeamiento de Recursos Hídricos Àrea de Aguas Superficiales: Estudio Diagnóstico Hidrológico de la Cuenca Madre de Dios (PDF; 7.9 MB) , Lima 2010, p. 51; comparison measurement in Google Earth: 920 km) and
   Madre de Dios (Bolivian. portion), 483 km
2. ↑ Ministerio des Agricultura, Direcciòn de Conservaciòn y Planeamiento de Recursos Hídricos Àrea de Aguas Superficiales: Estudio Diagnóstico Hidrológico de la Cuenca Madre de Dios (PDF; 7.9 MB) , Lima 2010, p. 7
3. ↑ ^{a b} Michel-Alain Roche, Carlos Fernández Jáuregui, Angel Aliaga Rivera, Jorge Peña Mendez, Edgar Salas Rada, José Luis Montano Vargas: Balance hídrico superficial de Bolivia ( Memento of November 5, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 2, 6 MB) . La Paz 1992
4. ↑ ^{a b} Calculated for Alto Madre de Dios 573.7 m³ / s and for Manú 919.4 m³ / s by Michel-Alain Roche, Carlos Fernández Jáuregui, Angel Aliaga Rivera, Jorge Peña Mendez, Edgar Salas Rada, José Luis Montano Vargas: Balance hídrico superficial de Bolivia ( Memento from November 5, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 2.6 MB) . La Paz 1992
5. ↑ Measurement in Google Earth
6. ↑ 365 km : Perú, Sistema nacional Estadístico: Compendio estadístico 2001 (PDF; 9.2 MB)
   435 km : Difference in length information of the Peruvian Madre de Dios
   alone with 480 km: Autoridad Nacional del Agua, Perú: Vigilancia de la calidad del agua en los rios Tambopata, Malinowski e Inambari - Madre de Dios , PDF; 7.3 MB. Informe No. 176-2010-ANA-DCPRH / BCT. Lima 2010,
   and including Manú with 915 km: Ministerio de Agricultura, Direcciòn de Conservaciòn y Planeamiento de Recursos Hídricos Àrea de Aguas Superficiales: Estudio Diagnóstico Hidrológico de la Cuenca Madre de Dios (PDF; 7.9 MB) , Lima 2010, p. 51
   465 km : Perú, Ministerio de Comercio exterior y Turismo: Plan Estratégico Regional Exportador, PERX - Madre de Dios ( Memento from January 20, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 1.2 MB). Lima 2007
   A comparison measurement in Google Earth showed 485 km.
7. ↑ A. Brack, C. Ipenza, J. Alvarez, V. Sotero: Minería Aurífera en Madre de Dios y Contaminación con Mercurio - Una Bomba de Tiempo ( Memento of the original from May 9, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The  archive link was inserted automatically and not yet tested. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 10.0 MB) , Ministerio del Ambiente, Lima 2011 (Spanish)
8. ↑ Ministerio de Agricultura, Autoridad Nacional del Agua: Mapa Hidrografico del Perú ( Memento of December 3, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) , Lima 2009