Guainía
Guainía is a mapped river in the YearMaps hydrographic index. River courses organise settlement, agriculture and frontier-making more durably than any political boundary, and this reach is indexed against the dams, lakes and cities within its catchment.
- Feature Class
- River
- Coordinates
- 3.19°, -70.65°
About Guainía
The Rio Negro (Spanish: Río Negro [ˈri.o ˈneɣɾo], Portuguese: Rio Negro [ˈʁi.u ˈneɡɾu], "Black River"), or Guainía as it is known in its upper part, is the largest left tributary of the Amazon River (accounting for about 14% of the water in the Amazon basin), the largest blackwater river in the world, and one of the world's ten largest rivers by average discharge. It originates in the tepuis of the department of Guainía, Colombia, and then flows southeastward before finally entering Brazil. Despite its high flow, the Rio Negro has a low sediment load (5.76 million tonnes per year on average in Manaus).
Encyclopedic summary adapted from Wikipedia: Rio Negro (Amazon) (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Guainía in Depth
Geography
The source of the Rio Negro lies in Colombia, in the Department of Guainía where the river is known as the Guainía River. The young river generally flows in an east-northeasterly direction through the Puinawai National Reserve, passing several small indigenous settlements on its way, such as Cuarinuma, Brujas, Santa Rosa and Tabaquén. After roughly 400 km (250 mi) the river starts forming the border between Colombia's Department of Guainía and Venezuela's Amazonas State. After passing the Colombian community of Tonina and Macanal the river turns southwest. Maroa is the first Venezuelan town the river passes. 120 km (75 mi) further downstream the river receives the Casiquiare canal from the left (north), forming a unique link between the Orinoco and the Amazon river basin.
History
The river was named by the Spanish explorer Francisco de Orellana, who first came upon it in 1541. By the middle of the 17th century, Jesuits had settled along its banks in the midst of numerous tribes: Manau, Aruák, and Tarumá Indians. After 1700, slaving along the river was common, and Native American populations were greatly diminished after contact with Eurasian diseases. In 1800 German scientist Alexander von Humboldt and French botanist Aimé Bonpland explored the river. During 1852–1854 Richard Spruce and Alfred Russel Wallace made numerous observations and botanical collections. During a 1924–25 expedition, Alexander H. Rice of Harvard University traveled up the Orinoco, traversed the Casiquiare canal, and descended the Rio Negro to the Amazon at Manaus.
Sections adapted from Wikipedia: Rio Negro (Amazon) (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Guainía: Key Facts
| Length | 2,250 km |
|---|---|
| Average discharge | 30,000 m³/s |
| Drainage basin | 720,114 km² |
| Mouth | Amazon River |
| Drainage system | Amazon basin |
| Tributaries | Branco River, Casiquiare canal, Aquio River, Içana River, Bream, Jauaperi River, Araçá River, Jaú River |
Facts from Wikidata Q118771 (CC0).
Major River Dossiers
Hand-written studies of the great river systems of history.
Connected Reaches
Nearby watercourses in the same drainage network.
Water Bodies in the Catchment
Settlements Along the Reach
Hydraulic Infrastructure Nearby
Surrounding Terrain
Guainía: Quick Answers
- Where is Guainía?
- Guainía is located in Colombia, at 3.1927° N, 70.6452° W.
- Are there dams on the Guainía?
- No dam on the Guainía is recorded in the YearMaps dam index, which covers major structures only.