Marañón River

Marañón to the mouth of the Río Santiago Borja at

Amazon Basin, Río Marañón highlighted

Valley of the Marañón between Chachapoyas and Celendín

The 1905 km long Río Marañón having an average water flow of 15,000 m³ / s, the left and larger of the two source rivers of the Amazon in South America and thus hydrologically the main source of the Amazon River. The longer is the source river Ucayali.

River

The Marañón arises from the confluence of the Río Río Lauricocha and Nupe. The latter rises in the Cordillera Huayhuash in 5800 m height. The origin of the Río Lauricocha north of the Cordillera Raura in three lagoons above the Lauricocha Lake was founded in 1909 by Wilhelm Sievers identified as the source of the Amazon. The Río Lauricocha was recognized until the discovery of the source of the Río Apurimac in 1975 as the Amazon headwaters.

The Marañón runs through a large part of the Andes in northern Peru and takes near La Union the Río Vizcara and Bagua in the Utcubamba on. As one of the longest rivers in Peru it flows hundreds of kilometers within the Andean parallel to the mountain ranges to the north- west before exiting to the east into the Amazon lowlands and there united with the Río Ucayali to Amazon. The Marañón flows through the high mountains, semi -desert valleys and subtropical and tropical rain forest.

Economy and culture

The Marañón is from the village of Balsas to navigable. An oil line runs parallel to the northern part of the river. In its catchment area, there are deposits of lead, zinc and silver, as well as a Non-Ferrous Metal.

The river forms the background for the novel The Golden Snake by Ciro Alegría.

Places on the Marañón

• Bagua
• Barranca
• Concordia
• Nauta

The largest tributaries

One of the largest tributaries include ( downstream ):

• Paccha
• Chamaya
• Chinchipe
• Cenepa
• Santiago
• Morona
• Pastaza
• Nucuray
• Urituyacu
• Chambira
• Tigre

• Utcubamba
• Imaza
• Nieva
• Apaga
• Huallaga
• Samiria