Abstract:
The Amazon River Basin extends over 6,1 million km2 and releases a fresh water volume of 6,600 109 m3.ano-1 to the Atlantic Ocean. About 50% of the area of the basin corresponds to the pre-Cambrian lands, the shields, 12% correspond to the Andean chain and the remain corresponds to the Amazonian plain. As a result of the Andean chain erosion, the transport of sediments at the Amazon basin until the Ocean, has in the rivers its main agent. The studies concerning this transport, have been rarefaied and most of them concentrated a long of the great central valley and sometimes,very rare, in some of its main tributaries. This study presents a vision of that subject since the level of the measurement sections at hydrometric stations until the continental scale. We evaluate the distribution of the total suspended sediment budget at the Amazonian Basin and some methods to calculate suspended sediment discharge as well. We also quantifying the contributions of the main sources of sediments, including the shields, until know inedit. Finally, we analyze distinct databases and evaluate the total contributions of the River Amazon in terms of annual flow of suspended sediments to the Atlantic Ocean, considering a new value, which resulted in a variation between 600 to 800 million tons.
Keywords:
sediments; hidrologia; Amazon; rivers