Atrato River

Río Atrato

The Río Atrato is a river in northwestern Colombia in the transition region from Central America to South America.

The river rises on the slopes of the Cordillera Occidental in Colombia and flows in a northerly direction to the Gulf of Urabá, a side bay of the Gulf of Darién, where it forms a large, swampy river delta. The river flows through the province of Chocó from south to north and forms the border at two points to the neighboring department of Antioquia.

Its length is about 750 km. He is upstream for a distance of 400 km navigable to the city Quibdó. The Atrato pours every second 4,900 cubic meters of water in the Caribbean Sea. He is the fastest-flowing river in the world. This statement is very doubtful, as images and movies on the Internet show a meandering ( clear sign of low flow velocity) flow with moderate to non-detectable flow. Apart from this can be the "fastest flow " hardly specify well alone if only because no generally accepted definition ( eg with regard to depth, flow rate, width or flow velocity) exists. In addition, can be found in the English description no corresponding message. The Atrato was because of his profound fairway in the past as a route for a Central American canal to the piercing of the isthmus in conversation. Such plans were abandoned in favor of the Panama Canal.

On its course through a narrow valley between the Cordillera Occidental and the eastern westerly Serranía de Baudó the Atrato has only short tributaries, the most important of them are the Río Truando, the Río Sucio and the Río Murri. Along some of its tributaries are the gold and platinum mines of Chocó and the river sands are auriferous.