Meeting of the Waters

Almost 10km from the inland city of Manaus in northern Brazil, the 'Meeting of the Waters' is the point where two of Amazon River’s largest tributaries - a smaller river that flows into a bigger ‘parent’ river - converge but never mix.

The Solimões River forms the lighter half, its ‘brown’ color owed to the rich sediment that runs down from the Andes Mountains, including sand, mud and silt.  The darker side is the Rio Negro, and it gets its ‘black’ color from leaf and plant matter that has decayed and dissolved in the water. 

This phenomenon is due to the differences in temperature, speed and water density of the two rivers. The Rio Negro flows at near 2 km per hour at a temperature of 86°F, while the Amazon River flows between 4 to 6 km per hour at a temperature of 75°F.