2018/05/25 by Maya F. Stokes, Samuel L. Goldberg, J. Taylor Perron · 1 citation
Environmental Science · Earth and Planetary Sciences · #Fish biology, ecology, and behavior #Groundwater and Watershed Analysis #Geological formations and processes
paper · pdf · doi:10.1029/2018gl078129
openalex publication_date 2018/05/25 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Abstract River capture is thought to trigger abrupt changes in evolving continental drainage systems, but it is almost always inferred rather than observed, and the mechanisms that lead to capture are unclear. We shed light on these mechanisms by documenting an ongoing capture involving major South American rivers. The Rio Casiquiare is a distributary of the Rio Orinoco and a tributary of the Rio Negro; it forms a perennial water connection between the drainage basins of the Amazon and Orinoco, the largest and fourth‐largest rivers on Earth by discharge. This unusual configuration is the result of an incomplete and ongoing river capture, in which the Rio Negro is capturing the upper Rio Orinoco. We describe a positive feedback between diversion of water into the capturing channel and sedimentation within the channel being captured, a mechanism that could drive river capture in the Amazon and elsewhere.