Ucayali River

The confluence of the Tambo (front) and Urubamba (right) to the Ucayali ( to the left)

Río Ucayali ( highlighted pink ) in the Amazon Basin

The Río Ucayali is one of the two source rivers of the Amazon in South America. It arises, in turn, by the confluence of the Urubamba River and Río Tambo near Atalaya. The Río Ucayali united in northeastern Peru near the equator with the shorter but higher with around 10 percent mean discharge slightly larger Río Marañón to Amazon.

River

The Río Ucayali, together with the Río hornillos, the Río Apurimac, the Río Ene and the Río Tambo with a length of 2670 km the longest headwaters of the Amazon. Here, the individual sections of the Amazon feed following individual sections on:

  • Río Apurimac: 730.7 km
  • Río Ene: 180.6 km
  • Río Tambo 158.5 kilometers
  • Río Ucayali 1600.1 kilometers

The Río Ucayali named after the Spanish conquest initially San Miguel, then Ucayali, Ucayare, Poro Poro Apu, Cocama and Rio de Cuzco. Peru has in its early history, sent many costly and well -led expeditions to explore the river. One of them claimed in 1867 to have closed to within 400 km of the capital Lima, and the little steamer Napo had worked its way to the mouth of the Río Tambo, 1600 km above the mouth of the Ucayali in the Amazon.

The width of the Ucayali in the lower reaches varies between 400 and 1200 m, caused by the large number of sandbanks and islands. The river here flows at a speed 5-7 km / h and always has a minimum depth of 1.50 m. Its water flow is at the confluence with the Río Marañón in the middle of 13,500 m³ / s

He leads a high proportion of sediments ( sand, clay, marl, etc. ) with it and is therefore assigned to the mud - or white-water rivers ( Muddy River or White River). In addition to the Rio Madeira, he is one of the main suppliers of the sediment load of the Amazon. White water rivers such as the Río Ucayali supply in the geologically young Andean nutrient-rich sediments that are deposited during high water periods along the rivers.

For the Ucayali region covers an area of ​​337,519 km ² was determined, which corresponds to about 4.9 percent of the entire Amazon basin of about 6.869 million km ².

After the river Ucayali region of the Peruvian is named.

Tributaries

From its numerous tributaries are the following downstream the largest listed:

  • Cohenga (right)
  • Sheshea (right)
  • Pachitea (left)
  • Tamaya (right)
  • Aguaytia (left)
  • Pisqui (left)
  • Cushabatay (left)
  • Guanache (right)
  • Tapiche (right)
  • Pacaya (left)
Amazon River Madeira River
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