Madeira River

river in Bolivia and Brazil

AI overview

The Madeira River is a major waterway that flows through Bolivia and Brazil, serving as an important transportation route and water resource for the region. It matters because it supports local communities, ecosystems, and economic activities across the areas it traverses in South America.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

~9 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Map of the Amazon Basin with the Madeira River highlighted

The Madeira River (Portuguese: Rio Madeira [maˈdejɾɐ]) is a major waterway in South America. It is estimated to be 1,450 km (900 mi) in length, while the Madeira-Mamoré is estimated near 3,250 km (2,020 mi) or 3,380 km (2,100 mi) in length depending on the measuring party and their methods. The Madeira is the biggest tributary 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.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Madeira River” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.