The Napo River ( es, Río Napo) is a
tributary
A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or 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 drain the surrounding drainage ...
to the
Amazon River
The Amazon River (, ; es, Río Amazonas, pt, Rio Amazonas) in South America is the largest river by discharge volume of water in the world, and the disputed longest river system in the world in comparison to the Nile.
The headwaters of t ...
that rises in
Ecuador
Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ''Eku ...
on the flanks of the east
Andean volcano
A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface.
On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates are ...
es of
Antisana, Sincholagua and
Cotopaxi.
The total length is . The river drains an area of . The mean annual discharge is
[ ( Mazán).
]
Geography
Before it reaches the plains it receives a great number of small streams from impenetrable, saturated and much broken mountainous districts, where the dense and varied vegetation seems to fight for every piece of ground. From the north it is joined by the Coca River
The Coca River is a river in eastern Ecuador. It is a tributary
A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or oc ...
, having its sources in the gorges of Cayambe volcano
Cayambe or Volcán Cayambe is a volcano in Ecuador, in the Cordillera Central, a range of the Ecuadorian Andes. It is located in Pichincha Province, some northeast of Quito. It is the third-highest mountain in Ecuador, at an elevation of above ...
on the equator
The equator is a circle of latitude, about in circumference, that divides Earth into the Northern and Southern hemispheres. It is an imaginary line located at 0 degrees latitude, halfway between the North and South poles. The term can als ...
, and also a powerful river, the Aguarico having its headwaters between Cayambe and the Colombia
Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...
frontier.
From the west, it receives a secondary tributary, the Curaray
The Curaray River (also called the Ewenguno River or Rio Curaray) is a river in eastern Ecuador and Peru. It is a tributary of the Napo River, which is a part of the Amazon basin. The land along the river is home to several indigenous people group ...
, from the Andean slopes, between Cotopaxi and the Tungurahua volcano
Tungurahua (; from Quichua ''tunguri'' (throat) and ''rahua'' (fire), "Throat of Fire")) is an active stratovolcano located in the Cordillera Oriental of Ecuador. The volcano gives its name to the province of Tungurahua. Volcanic activity resta ...
. From its Coca branch to the mouth of the Curaray the Napo is full of snags and shelving sandbanks and throws out numerous canoes among jungle-tangled islands, which in the wet season
The wet season (sometimes called the Rainy season) is the time of year when most of a region's average annual rainfall occurs. It is the time of year where the majority of a country's or region's annual precipitation occurs. Generally, the sea ...
are flooded, giving the river an immense width. From the Coca to the Amazon it runs through a forested plain where not a hill is visible from the river - its uniformly level banks being only interrupted by swamp
A swamp is a forested wetland.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p. Swamps are considered to be transition zones because both land and water play a role in ...
s and lagoon
A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into ''coastal lagoons'' (or ''barrier lagoons'') a ...
s.
From the Amazon the Napo is navigable for river craft up to its Curaray branch, a distance of about , and perhaps a bit further; thence, by painful canoe navigation, its upper waters may be ascended as far as Santa Rosa
Santa Rosa is the Italian, Portuguese and Spanish name for Saint Rose.
Santa Rosa may also refer to:
Places Argentina
*Santa Rosa, Mendoza, a city
* Santa Rosa, Tinogasta, Catamarca
* Santa Rosa, Valle Viejo, Catamarca
*Santa Rosa, La Pampa
* Sa ...
, the usual point of embarkation for any venturesome traveller who descends from the Quito
Quito (; qu, Kitu), formally San Francisco de Quito, is the capital and largest city of Ecuador, with an estimated population of 2.8 million in its urban area. It is also the capital of the province of Pichincha. Quito is located in a valley o ...
tableland. The Coca river may be penetrated as far up as its middle course, where it is jammed between two mountain walls, in a deep canyon, along which it dashes over high falls and numerous reefs. This is the stream made famous by the expedition of Gonzalo Pizarro.
Tributary
Drainge basin
Discharge
References:
Estudio Binacional de Navegabilidad del Río Napo (Ecuador-Perú)
'
References:
Boletin extraordinario de la evaluación hidrológica y pluviométrica en la cuenca amazónica peruana
(Senamhi, 2012)''
References:
Boletin extraordinario de la evaluación hidrológica y pluviométrica en la cuenca amazónica peruana
(Senamhi, 2013)''
See also
* Lake Pilchicocha
References
{{Authority control
Tributaries of the Amazon River
Rivers of Ecuador
Rivers of Peru
International rivers of South America
Rivers of Loreto Region
Geography of Napo Province
Geography of Orellana Province
Geography of Sucumbíos Province
Upper Amazon