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The Tapajós ( pt, Rio Tapajós ) is a river in
Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
. It runs through the Amazon Rainforest and is a major tributary of the Amazon River. When combined with the Juruena River, the Tapajós is approximately long. It is one of the largest clearwater rivers, accounting for about 6% of the water in the Amazon basin.


Course

For most of its length the Tapajós runs through
Pará Pará is a state of Brazil, located in northern Brazil and traversed by the lower Amazon River. It borders the Brazilian states of Amapá, Maranhão, Tocantins, Mato Grosso, Amazonas and Roraima. To the northwest are the borders of Guyana ...
State, but the upper (southern) part forms the border between Pará and Amazonas State. The
source Source may refer to: Research * Historical document * Historical source * Source (intelligence) or sub source, typically a confidential provider of non open-source intelligence * Source (journalism), a person, publication, publishing institute o ...
is at the Juruena–
Teles Pires The Teles Pires ( pt, Rio São Manuel) is a long river in Brazil. The river flows through the state of Mato Grosso and its lower part marks the border between the states of Mato Grosso and Pará. At its mouth it joins Juruena River and together ...
river junction. The Tapajós River basin accounts for 6% of the water in the Amazon Basin, making it the fifth largest in the system.Hales, J., and P. Petry (2013).
Tapajos – Juruena
'. Freshwater Ecoregions of the World. Retrieved 16 February 2013.
From the lower
Arinos River The Arinos River is a river in Brazil. It is located east of, and empties into, the Juruena River. Some of the Suyá Indians, a Gê-speaking people of central Brazil, migrated from the state of Maranhão Maranhão () is a state in Brazil. ...
(a tributary of Juruena) to the
Maranhão Grande Maranhão () is a state in Brazil. Located in the country's Northeast Region, it has a population of about 7 million and an area of . Clockwise from north, it borders on the Atlantic Ocean for 2,243 km and the states of Piauí, Tocantins and ...
falls are a more or less continuous series of formidable cataracts and rapids; but from the Maranhão Grande to the mouth of Tapajós, about , the river can be navigated by large vessels. For its last it is between wide and much of it very deep. The valley of the Tapajós is bordered on both sides by bluffs. They are from high along the lower river; but a few miles above Santarém, they retire from the eastern side and do not approach the Amazon floodplain until some miles below Santarém.


Geography

The eastern border of
Amazônia National Park The Amazônia National Park ( pt, Parque Nacional da Amazônia) was created in 1974, as a national park comprising 1,070,737 ha. It is situated in Itaituba and Trairão municipalities, Pará state, in the north region of Brazil. It is located in t ...
is formed by the Tapajós River. From
Itaituba Itaituba is a city and municipality located in the state of Pará, Brazil, and one of the most important socioeconomic centers in the western region of the State. Location Itaituba is the fifteenth largest city (by population) in the State of ...
and southwest a part of the
Trans-Amazonian Highway The Trans-Amazonian Highway (official designation BR-230, official name Rodovia Transamazônica), was introduced on September 27, 1972. It is 4,000 km long, making it the third longest highway in Brazil. It runs through the Amazon forest and ...
(BR-230) follows the river, while a part of
BR-163 BR-163 is a highway in Brazil, going from Tenente Portela, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, to Santarém, Pará, on 3579 kilometers (the stretch between Santarem and Brazil-Suriname border is only a project, the highway would have a total si ...
runs parallel to the river from Santarém and south. The South American
pole of inaccessibility A pole of inaccessibility with respect to a geographical criterion of inaccessibility marks a location that is the most challenging to reach according to that criterion. Often it refers to the most distant point from the coastline, implying a ...
is located close to the sources of Tapajós's tributaries, near Utiariti. The Tapajós is named after the
Tapajós people The Tapajós ( pt, Rio Tapajós ) is a river in Brazil. It runs through the Amazon Rainforest and is a major tributary of the Amazon River. When combined with the Juruena River, the Tapajós is approximately long. It is one of the largest cle ...
, an extinct group of
indigenous people Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...
from Santarém.


Ecology

The Tapajós is one of three major clearwater rivers in the Amazon Basin (the others are Xingu and
Tocantins Tocantins () is one of the 26 states of Brazil. It is the newest state, formed in 1988 and encompassing what had formerly been the northern two-fifths of the state of Goiás. Tocantins covers and had an estimated population of 1,496,880 in 20 ...
; the latter arguably outside the Amazon).Duncan, W.P.; and Fernandes, M.N. (2010). ''Physicochemical characterization of the white, black, and clearwater rivers of the Amazon Basin and its implications on the distribution of freshwater stingrays (Chondrichthyes, Potamotrygonidae).'' PanamJAS 5(3): 454-464.Giovanetti, T.A.; and Vriends, M.M. (1991). ''Discus Fish'', p. 15. Barron's Educational Serie. Clearwater rivers share the low
conductivity Conductivity may refer to: *Electrical conductivity, a measure of a material's ability to conduct an electric current **Conductivity (electrolytic), the electrical conductivity of an electrolyte in solution ** Ionic conductivity (solid state), ele ...
and relatively low levels of
dissolved solids In chemistry, a solution is a special type of homogeneous mixture composed of two or more substances. In such a mixture, a solute is a substance dissolved in another substance, known as a solvent. If the attractive forces between the solvent ...
with
blackwater river A blackwater river is a type of river with a slow-moving channel flowing through forested swamps or wetlands. As vegetation decays, tannins leach into the water, making a transparent, acidic water that is darkly stained, resembling black tea ...
s, but differ from these in having water that at most only is somewhat acidic (typical pH ~6.5) and very clear with a greenish colour. Although most of the tributaries in the Tapajós basin also are clearwater, there are exceptions, including the blackwater Braço Norte River (southeastern Serra do Cachimbo region).Ohara, W.M.; Mirande, J.M.; & Lima, F.C.T.d. (2017). Phycocharax rasbora, a new genus and species of Brazilian tetra (Characiformes: Characidae) from Serra do Cachimbo, rio Tapajós basin. PLoS ONE 12(2): e0170648. About 325 fish species are known from the Tapajós River basin, including 65 endemics.The Great Rivers Partnership:
Tapajós River Basin
'' Retrieved 16 February 2013.
Many of these have only been discovered within the last decade, and a conservative estimate suggests more than 500 fish species eventually will be recognized in the river basin.


Proposed dams

The fish, along with many other endemic species of flora and fauna are threatened by the
Tapajós hydroelectric complex The Tapajós hydroelectric complex ( pt, Complexo Hidrelétrico de Tapajós) is a proposed complex of hydroelectric dams on the Tapajós and Jamanxim rivers in the state of Pará, Brazil. The Tapajós dams would contain locks, thus converting the ...
dams that are planned on the river. The largest of those projects is the
São Luiz do Tapajós Dam The São Luiz do Tapajós Dam was expected to be the second largest hydroelectric dam in Brazil, after Belo Monte. It would have an installed capacity of 8,040 MW and its reservoir would cover about 400 km2 in the Tapajós river basin. The pl ...
, whose environmental licensing process has been suspended – not yet cancelled – by
IBAMA Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources ( pt, Instituto Brasileiro do Meio Ambiente e dos Recursos Naturais Renováveis, IBAMA) is the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment's administrative arm. IBAMA supports anti-d ...
due to its expected impacts on indigenous and river communities. It would flood a part of the area of the
Sawré Muybu Indigenous Territory The Sawré Muybu Indigenous Territory ( pt, Terra Indígena Sawré Muybu), also called the Daje Kapap Eipi, is an indigenous territory of Munduruku people in the state of Pará, Brazil. It includes land that is sacred to the Mundurukus. Issuance ...
. Another is the planned 2,338 MW Jatobá Hydroelectric Power Plant. A third dam, the controversial
Chacorão Dam The Chacorão Dam (or Chocorão Dam, pt, Barragem de Chacorão) is a proposed dam on the Tapajós river in the state of Pará, Brazil. It would flood a section of rapids in the river, making them navigable by barges carrying soybeans to ports on t ...
, would flood a large area of the
Munduruku The Munduruku, also known as Mundurucu or Wuy Jugu or BMJ, are an indigenous people of Brazil living in the Amazon River basin. Some Munduruku communities are part of the Coatá-Laranjal Indigenous Land. They had an estimated population in 2014 ...
Indigenous Territory. The dams are part of a plan to convert the Tapajos into a waterway for barges to take soybeans from Mato Grosso to the Amazon River ports. A continuous chain of dams, with locks, would eliminate today's rapids and waterfalls. The
Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large na ...
has referred to this issue as the next battle over saving the Amazon as a result of its controversy involving Indigenous communities, the Brazilian government, large multinationals and international environmental organizations.


In popular culture

The river is the sixth title of the album '' Aguas da Amazonia''.


References


Further reading

* Heinsdijk, Dammis, and Ricardo Lemos Fróes. ''Description of Forest-Types on "Terra Firme" between the Rio Tapajós and the Rio Xingú in the Amazon Valley''. 1956. {{DEFAULTSORT:Tapajos Tributaries of the Amazon River Rivers of Amazonas (Brazilian state) Rivers of Pará