Meeting of Waters

The Meeting of Waters (Portuguese: Encontro das Águas) is the confluence between the dark (blackwater) Rio Negro and the pale sandy-colored (whitewater) Amazon River, referred to as the Solimões River in Brazil upriver of this confluence.

[1] This phenomenon is due to the differences in temperature, speed, and amount of dissolved sediments in the waters of the two rivers.

[1] The light-colored water is rich with sediment from the Andes Mountains, whereas the black water, running from the Colombian hills and interior jungles, is nearly sediment-free and colored by decayed leaf and plant matter.

[2] Smaller-scale meeting of waters of the Amazon river also occurs in the locations of Santarém (Brazil), Iquitos (Peru), Puerto Maldonado (Peru) and Coari (Brazil).

This article related to a river in the Brazilian state of Amazonas is a stub.