Tocantins
Tocantins is a mapped river in the YearMaps hydrographic index. Tucuruí Dam stands on this watercourse and is written up below. River courses organise settlement, agriculture and frontier-making more durably than any political boundary, and this reach is indexed against the dams, lakes and cities within its catchment.
- Feature Class
- River
- Dams Recorded
- 1
- Coordinates
- -3.25°, -49.65°
About Tocantins
The Tocantins River (Portuguese: Rio Tocantins Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈʁi.u tokɐ̃ˈtʃĩs, tu-], Parkatêjê: Pyti [pɨˈti]) is a river in Brazil, the central fluvial artery of the country. In the Tupi language, its name means "toucan's beak" (Tukã for "toucan" and Ti for "beak"). It runs from south to north for about 2,450 km (1,520 mi). While sometimes included in definitions of the Amazon basin, the Tocantins is not a branch of the Amazon River, since its waters flow into the Atlantic Ocean via an eastern channel of the Amazon Delta, alongside those of the Amazon proper. It flows through four Brazilian states (Goiás, Tocantins, Maranhão, and Pará) and gives its name to one of Brazil's newest states, formed in 1988 from what was until then the northern portion of Goiás.
The Tocantins is one of the largest clearwater rivers in South America.
Encyclopedic summary adapted from Wikipedia: Tocantins River (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Tocantins in Depth
Course
It rises in the mountainous district known as the Pireneus, west of the Federal District, but its western tributary, the Araguaia River, has its extreme southern headwaters on the slopes of the Serra dos Caiapós. The Araguaia flows 1,670 km (1,040 mi) before its confluence with the Tocantins, to which it is almost equal in volume. Besides its main tributary, the Rio das Mortes, the Araguaia has twenty smaller branches, offering many miles of canoe navigation. In finding its way to the lowlands, it breaks frequently into waterfalls and rapids, or winds violently through rocky gorges, until, at a point about 160 km (99 mi) above its junction with the Tocantins, it saws its way across a rocky dyke for 20 km (12 mi) in roaring cataracts.
Geology
The flat, broad valleys, composed of sand and clay, of both the Tocantins and its Araguaia branch are overlooked by steep bluffs. They are the margins of the great sandstone plateaus, from 300 to 600 metres (980 to 1,970 ft) elevation above sea-level, through which the rivers have eroded their deep beds. Around the estuary of the Tocantins the great plateau has disappeared, having been replaced by a part of the forest-covered, half submerged alluvial plain, which extends far to the north-east and west. The Pará River, generally called one of the mouths of the Amazon, is only the lower reach of the Tocantins.
Sections adapted from Wikipedia: Tocantins River (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Tocantins: Key Facts
| Length | 2,450 km |
|---|---|
| Average discharge | 11,364 m³/s |
| Drainage basin | 770,000 km² |
| Mouth | Marajó Bay |
| Drainage system | Araguaia-Tocantins basin |
| Tributaries | Araguaia River, Paranã River, Maranhão River, Do Sono River, Itacaiúnas River, Santa Tereza River, Manuel Alves Grande River |
Facts from Wikidata Q156054 (CC0).
Tucuruí Dam
Tucuruí Dam
Earth-fill / Concrete Gravity dam · Pará, Brazil
Tucuruí Dam is an earth-fill / concrete gravity dam on the Tocantins (Amazon Basin) in Pará, Brazil, standing 78 m (256 ft) high and completed in 1984. It carries an installed hydroelectric capacity of 8,370 MW. The structure impounds Tucuruí Lake, about 3,606 km² on the map.
The Tucuruí Dam (Tucuruí means "grasshopper's water", translated from Tupí language; Portuguese: Tucuruí) is a concrete gravity dam on the Tocantins River located on the Tucuruí County in the State of Pará, Brazil. The main purpose of the dam is hydroelectric power production and navigation. It is the first large-scale hydroelectric project in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest. The installed capacity of the 25-unit plant is 8,370 megawatts (11,220,000 hp). Phase I construction began in 1980 and ended in 1984 while Phase II began in 1998 and ended in 2010. The dam was featured in the 1985 film The Emerald Forest.
Adapted from Wikipedia: Tucuruí Dam (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Dam type
- Earth-fill / Concrete Gravity
- Structural height
- 78 m (256 ft)
- Installed capacity
- 8,370 MW
- Impounded river
- Tocantins (Amazon Basin)
- Reservoir
- Tucuruí Lake
- Location
- Pará, Brazil
- Year completed
- 1984
- Height rank
- #59 of 115 indexed
- Output rank
- #8 of 102 indexed
- Coordinates
- -3.8317°, -49.6467°
Notable: First large-scale hydro project in the Amazon rainforest basin; powered northern Brazilian aluminum smelting.
Among the 115 dams indexed in YearMaps, Tucuruí Dam ranks #59 by structural height, behind Jinping-I Dam (305 m). By installed generating capacity it ranks #8, behind Three Gorges Dam (22,500 MW).
The Reservoir: Represa de Tucuruí
Represa de Tucuruí is the water body held back by Tucuruí Dam, with a mapped surface of about 3,606 km², impounded in 1984. The area is computed from the mapped outline and is approximate.
Nearest cities: Tucuruí (19 km), Jacundá (90 km), Itupiranga (148 km).
More about Tucuruí Dam
Background and history
The initial reconnaissance of the Tocantins River was carried out by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and USAID in 1964. The Amazon Energy Studies Coordination Committee was formed in 1968 and begin hydroelectric project studies in 1969. Before the committee closed, Eletrobrás commissioned further studies, called the "Tocantins Studies", on the entire Tocantins River Basin. In 1973, Brazilian President Emílio Médici was asked to assign funding for a dam on the Tocantins. Two options were available: the Tucuruí Dam and Santo Antonio Dam (unrelated to the Santo Antonio Dam on the Madeira River). In 1973, the Engevix-Ecotec consortium carried out feasibility studies and the Santo Antonio Dam was ruled out in 1974.
Construction
Construction on Phase I began on November 24, 1975. Phase I called for the construction of the main dam, its dikes, the power house, spillway and upper portion of the navigation locks. On February 1, 1977, concrete-pouring began on site and in September 1978, the river diversion began. On September 6, 1984, the reservoir began filling and 206-days later it was at normal pool. Construction was completed 3 years behind schedule on November 10, 1984. The navigation lock that is part of the dam's design was only partially completed during Phase I with only the upper portion. The construction costs were predicted to be $3.6 billion but rose to over 5.5 billion by construction's end. Including interest during construction, the total cost for Phase I was $7.5 billion.
Sections adapted from Wikipedia: Tucuruí Dam (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Tucuruí Dam: Key Facts
| Crest length | 8,005 m |
|---|
Facts from Wikidata Q1475210 (CC0).
Major River Dossiers
Hand-written studies of the great river systems of history.
Connected Reaches
Nearby watercourses in the same drainage network.
Water Bodies in the Catchment
Settlements Along the Reach
Hydraulic Infrastructure Nearby
Surrounding Terrain
Tocantins: Quick Answers
- Where is Tocantins?
- Tocantins is located in Brazil, at 3.2490° S, 49.6450° W.
- Are there dams on the Tocantins?
- Yes. YearMaps records one dam on the Tocantins: Tucuruí Dam.
- How tall is Tucuruí Dam?
- Tucuruí Dam is 78 metres (256 ft) high and was completed in 1984.