The Mighty Amazon
Laguna Lauricocha: possibly the source of the Amazon
The Amazon begins high in the Peruvian Andes
as a thin sheet of crystal water flowing down the side of a rock wall.
By the time its journey ends in the Atlantic Ocean some 6,275 km away,
it has become the world’s largest river by volume, and possibly the
longest.
The serene mountain lake on the pictures, Laguna Lauricocha, is only a
few km away from the source of the Amazon river. It is situated in the
department of Junín in the Cordillera Huayhuash. The
river Marañon feeds this lake. After Laguna Lauricocha, the
Marañon flows on northwards for hundreds of kilometres through
mountains and canyons, and then eastwards into the Amazon
basin. There, near the jungle town Nauta, the Marañon is
joined by another big river coming from the south: the Ucayali. At this
point both rivers confluence and continue into Peru's eastern lowlands
and Brazil under the name Amazon. The Times Atlas of the World, edition
1996, pinpoints the place near Laguna Lauricocha as the main source of
the Amazon. At least that was the opinion of leading geologists.
Laguna Lauricocha
Because recently an expedition from National Geographic came to another
conclusion. A team consisting of 22 people representing the United
States, Peru, Canada, Spain, and Poland, explored all five of the
remote Andean rivers that combine to form the Amazon: Apurimac,
Huallaga, Mantaro, Marañon, and Urubamba-Vilcanota.
Nevado Mismi with an expedition member. This
could be the source of the Amazon as well
The team has identified the place where the Amazon begins on a slope of
Nevado Mismi, a 5,597-meter mountain in southern Peru in the department
Arequipa. The Nevado Mismi lies in an Andean mountain range with the
name Cordillera del Chila, and is about 10 km from the small city of Chivay in the Colca Canyon. The
source of the Amazon can be defined as the most distant point in the
drainage basin from which water runs year-around, or the furthest point
from which water could possibly flow into the ocean. Nevado Mismi fits
both these definitions, the expedition members conclude.
The Amazon and its sources in Peru
Confluence of the
Apacheta and Lioqueta
river near Nevado Mismi
The Urubamba river at Pongo de Mainique. Image © Davarian
Hall.
The Huallaga river in Tingo María. Image © Javier
Martel
The world’s largest river in watershed area, number of tributaries and
volume of water discharged, the Amazon has only one rival as the
world’s longest: the Nile in Africa. But if the conclusions of the
National Geographic team are right, the Amazon is also the longest
river on earth.
The major headstreams of the Amazon join near Nauta, Peru. From there
the river flows generally eastward to discharge inthe Atlantic Ocean.
With an undetermined number of tributaries — more than 200 in Brazil —
the river’s watershed includes the world’s largest and wettest tropical
plain. The river ranges in width from 1.5 to 10 kilometers during the
dry season to 48 kilometers or more during annual floods. No waterfalls
or other obstructions are found along its course. Ships with 5-meter
drafts can navigate all the way from the Atlantic Ocean to Iquitos, nearly its entire length.
Nauta: The Marañon river
Iquitos, view over the Amazon
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