Xingu
Xingu is a mapped river in the YearMaps hydrographic index. Belo Monte Dam stands on this watercourse and is written up below. 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
- Dams Recorded
- 1
- Coordinates
- -6.48°, -52.31°
About Xingu
The Xingu River (, shing-GOO; Portuguese: Rio Xingu [ˈʁi.u ʃĩˈɡu]; Mẽbêngôkre: Byti [bɯˈti]) is a 1,640 km (1,020 mi) river in north Brazil. It is a southeast tributary of the Amazon River and one of the largest clearwater rivers in the Amazon basin, accounting for about 5% of its water.
Encyclopedic summary adapted from Wikipedia: Xingu River (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Xingu in Depth
Description and history
The first Indigenous Park in Brazil was created in the river basin by the Brazilian government in the early 1960s. This park marks the first indigenous territory recognized by the Brazilian government and it was the world's largest indigenous preserve on the date of its creation. Currently, fourteen tribes live within Xingu Indigenous Park, surviving on natural resources and extracting from the river most of what they need for food and water.
The Brazilian government built the Belo Monte Dam on the Lower Xingu, which began operations in 2019 and is the world's fifth-largest hydroelectric dam.
Sections adapted from Wikipedia: Xingu River (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Xingu: Key Facts
| Length | 1,640 km |
|---|---|
| Average discharge | 9,680 m³/s |
| Drainage basin | 513,000 km² |
| Mouth | Amazon River |
| Drainage system | Amazon basin |
| Tributaries | Iriri River, Culuene River, Acarai River, Jaraucu River, Suia Missu River |
Facts from Wikidata Q49544 (CC0).
Belo Monte Dam
Belo Monte Dam
Earth / Concrete dam · Pará, Brazil
Belo Monte Dam is an earth / concrete dam on the Xingu in Pará, Brazil, standing 90 m (295 ft) high and completed in 2019. It carries an installed hydroelectric capacity of 11,233 MW. The structure impounds Belo Monte Complex.
The Belo Monte Dam (formerly known as Kararaô) is a hydroelectric dam complex on the northern part of the Xingu River in the state of Pará, Brazil. After its completion, with the installation of its 18th turbine, in November 2019, the installed capacity of the dam complex is 11,233 megawatts (MW), which makes it the second largest hydroelectric dam complex in Brazil and the fifth largest in the world by installed capacity, behind the Three Gorges Dam, Baihetan Dam and the Xiluodu Dam in China and the Brazilian-Paraguayan Itaipu Dam. Considering the oscillations of river flow, guaranteed minimum capacity generation from the Belo Monte Dam would measure 4,571 MW, 39% of its maximum capacity.
Brazil's rapid economic growth over the last decade has provoked a huge demand for new and stable sources of energy, especially to supply its growing industries. In Brazil, hydroelectric power plants produce over 66% of the electrical energy. The Government has decided to construct new hydroelectric dams to guarantee national energy security.
Adapted from Wikipedia: Belo Monte Dam (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Dam type
- Earth / Concrete
- Structural height
- 90 m (295 ft)
- Installed capacity
- 11,233 MW
- Impounded river
- Xingu
- Reservoir
- Belo Monte Complex
- Location
- Pará, Brazil
- Year completed
- 2019
- Height rank
- #53 of 115 indexed
- Output rank
- #5 of 102 indexed
- Coordinates
- -3.1258°, -51.7744°
Notable: Fourth largest hydroelectric plant in the world, located in the Amazon basin.
Among the 115 dams indexed in YearMaps, Belo Monte Dam ranks #53 by structural height, behind Jinping-I Dam (305 m). By installed generating capacity it ranks #5, behind Three Gorges Dam (22,500 MW).
Nearest cities: Altamira (49 km), Portel (168 km), Breves (215 km).
More about Belo Monte Dam
History
Plans for what would eventually be called the Belo Monte Dam Complex began in 1975 during Brazil's military dictatorship, when Eletronorte contracted the Consórcio Nacional de Engenheiros Consultores (CNEC) to realize a hydrographic study to locate potential sites for a hydroelectric project on the Xingu River. CNEC completed its study in 1979 and identified the possibility of constructing five dams on the Xingu River and one dam on the Iriri River.
Original plans for the project, based on the 1979 study, included two dams close to Belo Monte. These were: Kararaô (called Belo Monte after 1989), Babaquara (called Altamira after 1998), which was the next upstream. Four other dams were planned upstream as well and they include the Ipixuna, Kakraimoro, Iriri and Jarina.
Design
The Belo Monte Dam (AHE Belo Monte) is a complex of three dams, numerous dykes and a series of canals in order to supply two different power stations with water. The Pimental Dam (3°27′33″S 51°57′31″W) on the Xingu would be 36 metres (118 ft) tall; 6,248 metres (20,499 ft) long and have a structural volume of 4,768,000 cubic metres (168,400,000 ft3). It would create the Calha Do Xingu Reservoir which would have a normal capacity of 2,069,000,000 cubic metres (1,677,000 acre⋅ft) and surface area of 333 square kilometres (129 sq mi). The dam would support a power station and its spillway would serve as the complex's principal spillway with 17 floodgates and a 47,400 cubic metres per second (1,673,915 cu ft/s) maximum discharge.
Sections adapted from Wikipedia: Belo Monte Dam (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Belo Monte Dam: Key Facts
| Crest length | 3.5 m |
|---|
Facts from Wikidata Q816119 (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
Xingu: Quick Answers
- Where is Xingu?
- Xingu is located in Brazil, at 6.4784° S, 52.3061° W.
- Are there dams on the Xingu?
- Yes. YearMaps records one dam on the Xingu: Belo Monte Dam.
- How tall is Belo Monte Dam?
- Belo Monte Dam is 90 metres (295 ft) high and was completed in 2019.