The Tampaón River, also known as the Tamuin River, is a river in northeastern Mexico. It is a principal tributary of the

Pánuco River The Pánuco River ( es, Río Pánuco, ), also known as the ''Río de Canoas'', is a river in Mexico fed by several tributaries including the Moctezuma River and emptying into the Gulf of Mexico. The river is approximately long and passes throug ...

, draining portions of

San Luis Potosí San Luis Potosí (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of San Luis Potosí ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de San Luis Potosí), is one of the 32 states which compose the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 58 municipalities and i ...

Guanajuato Guanajuato (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Guanajuato ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Guanajuato), is one of the 32 states that make up the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 46 municipalities and its capital city i ...

Querétaro Querétaro (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Querétaro ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Querétaro, links=no; Otomi language, Otomi: ''Hyodi Ndämxei''), is one of the Political divisions of Mexico, 32 federal entities of Mexico. I ...

, and

Veracruz Veracruz (), formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave), is one of the 31 states which, along with Me ...

states. It is formed by the confluence of the Santa Maria River and the Rio Verde, which originate on the

Mexican Plateau The Central Mexican Plateau, also known as the Mexican Altiplano ( es, Altiplanicie Mexicana), is a large arid-to-semiarid plateau that occupies much of northern and central Mexico. Averaging above sea level, it extends from the US-Mexico border ...

and flow through canyons in the

Sierra Madre Oriental The Sierra Madre Oriental () is a mountain range in northeastern Mexico. The Sierra Madre Oriental is part of the American Cordillera, a chain of mountain ranges (cordillera) that consists of an almost continuous sequence of mountain ranges that f ...

. The rivers join in the Sierra to form the Tampaón and it continues east, emerging onto the

Gulf Coastal Plain The Gulf Coastal Plain extends around the Gulf of Mexico in the Southern United States and eastern Mexico. This coastal plain reaches from the Florida Panhandle, southwest Georgia, the southern two-thirds of Alabama, over most of Mississippi, wes ...

, where it is joined by tributaries that drain the wetter eastern slopes of the Sierra Madre. It winds eastwards to join the

Moctezuma River The Moctezuma River (Río Moctezuma) is a river in Mexico that drains the eastern side of the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt (Sierra Nevada). It is a tributary of the Pánuco River and flows through the Mexican states of Hidalgo, Querétaro, and Sa ...

and form the

in Veracruz state.Hudson, Paul F. (2000) "Discharge, Sediment, and Channel Characteristics of the Río Panuco, Mexico". ''Yearbook (Conference of Latin Americanist Geographers), 2000'', Vol. 26 (2000), University of Texas Press, pp. 61-70

/ref> The eastern slopes of the Sierra are formed mostly of porous limestone, and the dissolved limestone gives the river a jade-green color.

References

{{Commons cat Tributaries of the Pánuco River Rivers of Querétaro Rivers of San Luis Potosí Rivers of Veracruz