The Coca River is a

river A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside Subterranean river, caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of ...

in eastern

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

. It is a

tributary A tributary, or an ''affluent'', is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream (''main stem'' or ''"parent"''), river, or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries, and the main stem river into which they ...

of the

Napo River The Napo River () is a tributary to the Amazon River that rises in Ecuador on the flanks of the east Andean volcanoes of Antisana, Sincholagua and Cotopaxi. The total length is . The river drains an area of ca 103,000 km2. The mean annual dis ...

. The two rivers join in the city of

Puerto Francisco de Orellana Puerto Francisco de Orellana (), also known as El Coca (), is the capital of province of Orellana in eastern Ecuador. The city is located in the Amazon Rainforest at the confluence of the Coca River and the Napo River (the smaller Payamino Rive ...

. The Payamino River also merges into the Napo River in the city, but at a point about upstream from the Coca–Napo confluence. Over several months, from June 2019 to February 2020, a large sinkhole formed just upstream of the famous waterfall, San Rafael Falls, the tallest in Ecuador. Due to the sinkhole, the river rerouted itself on February 2, 2020, undercutting the lava dam and triggering major retrogressive erosion. The erosion continues to migrate upstream, eating into the riverbed and valley walls, and can potentially threaten the country’s largest hydroelectric dam 10 kilometers upstream the present erosion front.

References

https://www.usgs.gov/centers/pcmsc/news/federal-scientists-assess-unusual-river-erosion-disaster-ecuadorian-amazon Rivers of Ecuador Upper Amazon {{Ecuador-river-stub

See also

References