Amazon River Floods of Fortune
The Amazon River flood is complex with no simple upstream-to-downstream seasonal wave. In a calendar year, the first peak-flood levels are reached in April and May near the mouth of the Xingu, approximately 200 km from the Atlantic.
The next peak floods are in May in the Amazonas stretch near Iquitos, Peru. The final peak floods are in the central Amazon near Manaus in June and July, about 2 months after the highest rainfall months due to a flooding anomaly known as the backwater effect caused by seasonal differences in the arrival times of floods from the northern and southern tributaries.
The Amazon flood in images
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Annual flooding often requires placing floodplain livestock on raised platforms where they remain if not transferred to uplands until river level subsides. Department – Country: Pará – Brazil Main Basin – Sub Basin: Amazon Main Stem – Eastern Amazon Main Stem Elevation: 35 Photographer: Michael Goulding
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Riverine community inundated during the annual floods. Photographer: Walter Wust
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Extensive flooding of the Llanos de Mojos mixed savanna and tree/shrub wetlands. Photographer: Luiz Claudio Marigo