Madeira River

The Madeira River is a major waterway in South America, approximately 3250km long. The Madeira is one of the biggest tributaries of the Amazon, accounting for about 15% of the water in the basin. A map from Emanuel Bowen in 1747, held by the David Rumsey Map Collection, refers to the Madeira by the pre-colonial, indigenous name Cuyari: The River of Cuyari, called by the Portuguese Madeira or the Wood River, is formed by two great rivers, which join near its mouth. It was by this River, that the Nation of Topinambes passed into the River Amazon.ClimateThe mean inter-annual precipitations on the great basins vary from 75to, the entire upper Madeira basin receiving 170.5cm. The greatest extremes of waterfalls are between 49to. At its head, the Madeira on its own is still one of the largest rivers of the world, with a mean inter-annual discharge of 18000m3/s, i.e. 536km3 per year, approximately half the discharge of the Congo River. The mean inter-annual contribution of the Bolivian Andes is 4170m3/s, i.e. 132km3 per year, representing 25% of the discharge of the entire upper Madeira basin. On the further course towards the Amazon, the mean discharge of the Madeira increases up to 31200m3/s.