The Kourou is a river in

French Guiana French Guiana ( or ; french: link=no, Guyane ; gcr, label=French Guianese Creole, Lagwiyann ) is an overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France on the northern Atlantic ...

, discharging into the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

. It is long. The town of

Kourou Kourou () is a commune in French Guiana, an overseas region and department of France in South America. Kourou is famous for being the location of the Guiana Space Centre, the main spaceport of France and the European Space Agency (ESA). It i ...

is located at its estuary, which is generally used as a pleasure port. Like the

river Amazon The Amazon River (, ; es, Río Amazonas, pt, Rio Amazonas) in South America is the List of rivers by discharge, largest river by Discharge (hydrology), discharge volume of water in the world, and the disputed List of river systems by length, ...

, it has brown, muddy waters due to sediments picked up from the forest. A great many different fish species live in the river and are used in the local diet. Like many Guyanaise rivers, it is polluted by

mercury Mercury commonly refers to: * Mercury (planet), the nearest planet to the Sun * Mercury (element), a metallic chemical element with the symbol Hg * Mercury (mythology), a Roman god Mercury or The Mercury may also refer to: Companies * Merc ...

, as a result of clandestine

gold mining Gold mining is the extraction of gold resources by mining. Historically, mining gold from alluvial deposits used manual separation processes, such as gold panning. However, with the expansion of gold mining to ores that are not on the surface ...

References

Rivers of French Guiana Rivers of France {{FrenchGuiana-river-stub