scholarly journals Water and Sediment Budget of Casiquiare Channel Linking Orinoco and Amazon Catchments, Venezuela

Author(s):  
Alain Laraque ◽  
Jose Luis Lopez ◽  
Santiago Yepez ◽  
Paul Georgescu

The Casiquiare River is a natural channel that connects two of the greatest rivers in the world, the Orinoco and the Amazon in the South American Continent. The aim of this paper is to present a review and synthesis of the hydrological and sedimentological knowledge of the Casiquiare River, including the first hydro-sedimentary balance of the Casiquiare fluvial system conducted at the bifurcation and at the mouth on September 9-12, 2000, during the expedition ‘Humboldt-Amazonia 2000’. Bathymetric, flow discharge and physico-chemical measurements were made at the inlet and at the outlet of the Casiquiare Channel. The main conclusions of this study indicate that Casiquiare is taking a significant proportion of flow (20 to 30%) from the Upper Orinoco basin to the Amazon basin. Throughout its 356 km-course, this chameleon channel undergoes significant morphological, hydrological and bio-geochemical variations between the inlet and the outlet, whose most visible witnesses are the increase in its width (3 to 4 times), flow (7 to 9 times) and its change in water color (white to black water), under the influence of tributaries coming from vast forest plains.

Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 2068
Author(s):  
Laraque ◽  
Lopez ◽  
Yepez ◽  
Georgescu

The Casiquiare River is a natural channel that connects two of the greatest rivers in the world, the Orinoco and the Amazon in the South American continent. The aim of this paper is to present a review and synthesis of the hydrological and sedimentological knowledge of the Casiquiare River, including the first hydro-sedimentary balance of the Casiquiare fluvial system conducted 9–12 September 2000 at the bifurcation and mouth during the expedition ‘Humboldt-Amazonia 2000’. Bathymetric flow discharge and physico-chemical measurements were made at the inlet and outlet of the Casiquiare Channel. The main conclusions of this study indicate that Casiquiare is taking a significant proportion of flow (20% to 30%) from the Upper Orinoco basin to the Amazon basin. Throughout its 356 km-course, this chameleon channel undergoes significant morphological, hydrological, and bio-geochemical variations between the inlet and outlet, whose most visible witnesses are the increase in its width (3 to 4 times), flow (7 to 9 times), and its change in water color (white to black water), under the influence of tributaries coming from vast forest plains.


The analysis of integration of the legal systems of states in the American region is held. In the Southern subregion, a combination of integration and disintegration in cooperation of states led to the creation of two integration entities – MERCOSUR and the Andean Community (AC), in the Northern subregion – NAFTA. The author concludes that the convergence on the American continent, especially using the integration method, helped to implement a special scenario in the southern part of this continent – the meta-integration scenario, with the creation of the Union of South American Nations, uniting the Andean Community and MERCOSUR – something resembling a European one, but at the same time different from it. UNASUR is an effective mechanism for bringing together and integrating the states of the South American continent. Within this Union with notable leadership of Brazil and Argentina the first steps in the direction of the foreign policy integration of the member states are traced. In terms of economic integration, the Union uses the achievements of the AC and MERCOSUR, unifying the legal regulators in the economic sphere and bringing rapprochement to the legal systems of the member states.


2014 ◽  
Vol 692 ◽  
pp. 240-244
Author(s):  
Gong De Wu ◽  
Xiao Li Wang ◽  
Zhi Li Zhai

A series of transition metal alanine-salicylaldehyde Schiff base chromium (III) complexes immobilized on MCM-41 were prepared and characterized by various physico-chemical measurements such as FIIR, XRD, HRTEM, N2 sorption and elemental analysis. The immobilized complexes were effective and stable catalysts for the epoxidation of styrene and cyclohexene with 30% hydrogen peroxide. Moreover, the metal centers were found to play important roles in the catalytic performance of immobilized complex catalysts.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcela Eduarda Della Libera de Godoy ◽  
Valdir F. Novello ◽  
Francisco William Cruz

<p>South American Monsoon System (SAMS) and its main feature, the South American Convergence Zone (SACZ) are responsible for the major distribution of moisture in South America. The current work presents a novel high-resolution oxygen isotope record (δ<sup>18</sup>O) based on speleothems from southwest Amazon basin (Brazil), right at SAMS' core region and SACZ onset, where there is still a gap of high resolution paleoclimate records. The novel δ<sup>18</sup>O record presents an average of 3 year-resolution, composed by 1344 stable isotope analysis performed in two speleothems with a well-resolved chronology (37 U/Th ages) with average errors <1%. This work aims to describe the rainfall variability of the core region of the South American monsoon for the last 3k years and to take a broader look at precipitation patterns over Amazon basin. The Rondônia δ18O record shows three main stages throughout this time period. The first is from -1000 to ~400 CE, where it’s in accordance with most of other paleorecords from the Amazon basin. the second segment  is from ~400 to 1200 CE, when there is a continuous increase in the δ18O record until it reaches its highest values around 850 CE during the MCA (800-1200 CE), which is in accordance with western Amazon records, whilst the record in eastern Amazon presents an opposite trend. Thus, a precipitation dipole over Amazon emerges from ~400 CE onwards, majorly triggered by anomalous climate changes such as MCA, where western (eastern) Amazon is drier (wetter). During LIA (1450-1800 CE), on the other hand, Rondônia record presents its lowest values, also agreeing with western records and with records under the influence of SACZ whilst on eastern Amazon a drier period is established. Therefore, with this novel paleoclimate record located at the core region of SAMS, it's possible to evidence the dynamics of the precipitation dipole over the Amazon region, as well as understand the SACZ intensity variations.</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela Maria Gomez Garcia ◽  
Eline Le Breton ◽  
Magdalena Scheck-Wenderoth ◽  
Gaspar Monsalve ◽  
Denis Anikiev

<p>Remnants of the Caribbean Large Igneous Plateau (C-LIP) are found as thickened zones of oceanic crust in the Caribbean Sea, that formed during strong pulses of magmatic activity around 90 Ma. Previous studies have proposed the Galápagos hotspot as the origin of the thermal anomaly responsible for the development of this igneous province. Particularly, geochemical signature relates accreted C-LIP fragments along northern South America with the well-known hotspot material.</p><p>In this research, we use 3D lithospheric-scale structural and density models of the Caribbean region, in which up-to-date geophysical datasets (i.e.: tomographic data, Moho depths, sedimentary thickness, and bathymetry) have been integrated. Based on the gravity residuals (modelled minus observed EIGEN6C-4 dataset), we reconstruct density heterogeneities both in the crust and the uppermost oceanic mantle (< 50km).</p><p>Our results suggest the presence of two positive mantle density anomalies in the Colombian and the Venezuelan basins, interpreted as the preserved plume material which migrated together with the Proto-Caribbean plate from the east Pacific. Such bodies have never been identified before, but a positive density trend is also observed in the mantle tomography, at least down to 75 km depth.</p><p>Using recently published regional plate kinematic models and absolute reference frames, we test the hypothesis of the C-LIP origin in the Galápagos hotspot. However, misfits of up to ~3000 km between the present hotspot location and the mantle anomalies, reconstructed back to 90 Ma, is observed, as other authors reported in the past.</p><p>Therefore, we discuss possible sources of error responsible for this offset and pose two possible interpretations: 1. The Galápagos hotspot migrated (~1200-3000 km) westward while the Proto-Caribbean moved to the northeast, or 2. The C-LIP was formed by a different plume, which – if considered fixed - would be nowadays located below the South American continent.</p>


Oryx ◽  
1958 ◽  
Vol 4 (5) ◽  
pp. 332-334

Problems of nature preservation in British territories of central America may be clearly divided between continental countries, British Honduras and British Guiana on the one hand, and the islands on the other; although the fauna of Trinidad and Tobago has much in common with that of the South American continent. The islands of the Greater and Lesser Antilles have been separated long enough from the mainland and from each other, for them to have developed their own plants and animals. Common to continental and island countries, however, are the migratory shore birds of the western hemisphere.


Water ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 1594 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beatriz Garcia ◽  
Renata Libonati ◽  
Ana Nunes

The Amazon basin has experienced severe drought events for centuries, mainly associated with climate variability connected to tropical North Atlantic and Pacific sea surface temperature anomalous warming. Recently, these events are becoming more frequent, more intense and widespread. Because of the Amazon droughts environmental and socioeconomic impacts, there is an increased demand for understanding the characteristics of such extreme events in the region. In that regard, regional models instead of the general circulation models provide a promising strategy to generate more detailed climate information of extreme events, seeking better representation of physical processes. Due to uneven spatial distribution and gaps found in station data in tropical South America, and the need of more refined climate assessment in those regions, satellite-enhanced regional downscaling for applied studies (SRDAS) is used in the reconstruction of South American hydroclimate, with hourly to monthly outputs from January 1998. Accordingly, this research focuses on the analyses of recent extreme drought events in the years of 2005 and 2010 in the Amazon Basin, using the SRDAS monthly means of near-surface temperature and relative humidity, precipitation and vertically integrated soil moisture fields. Results from this analysis corroborate spatial and temporal patterns found in previous studies on extreme drought events in the region, displaying the distinctive features of the 2005 and 2010 drought events.


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