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Japura Facts & Worksheets

Japura River or Caquetá River is a river in Brazil, Amazonas state that is about 2,816 kilometres (1,750 mi) long.

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Japura River or Caquetá River is a river in Brazil, Amazonas state that is about 2,816 kilometres (1,750 mi) long. It begins in the Andes mountains in Columbia where it is called the Caquetá. The river flows through Columbia into Brazil where it is called the Japura. It empties into the Amazon river.

See the fact file below for more information on the Japura or alternatively, you can download our 20-page Japura worksheet pack to utilise within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

DESCRIPTION

  • Japurá River, or Portuguese Rio Japurá, rises as the Caquetá River east of Pasto, Colombia, in the Colombian Cordillera Central. It meanders generally east-southeastward through the tropical rain forest of southeastern Colombia.
  • After receiving the Apaporis River at the Brazilian border, it takes the name Japurá and flows eastward to join the stretch of the Amazon known as the Solimões River, above Tefé. Its total length, including the Caquetá, is about 1,750 miles (2,820 km).
  • At its mouth, it forms a network of channels and large islands, with seasonal lakes. The river, which has a strong current, is navigable for small boats in Brazil.

COURSE

  • The river rises as the Caquetá River in the Andes in southwest Colombia.
  • The Caquetá River rises near the sources of the Magdalena River, and augments its volume from many branches as it courses through Colombia.
  • It flows southeast into Brazil, where it is called the Japurá. The Japurá enters the Amazon River through a network of channels. It is navigable by small boats in Brazil.
  • West of the Rio Negro, the Solimões River (as the Amazon’s upper Brazilian course is called) receives three more imposing streams from the northwest—the Japurá, the Içá (referred to as the Putumayo before it crosses over into Brazil), and the Napo.

ENVIRONMENT

  • For much of its length the river flows through the Purus várzea ecoregion. The river is home to a wide variety of fish and reptiles, including enormous catfish weighing up to 91 kg (201 lb) and measuring up to 1.8 metres (5.9 ft) in length, electric eels, piranhas, turtles, and caimans.
  • Much of the jungle through which the eastern Caquetá originally flowed has been cleared for pasture, crops of rice, corn, manioc, and sugar cane, and in the past two decades, particularly coca crops.

NAVIGATION

  • The 19th-century Brazilian historian and geographer José Coelho da Gama e Abreu, the Baron of Marajó, attributed 970 kilometres (600 mi) of navigable stretches to it.
  • Jules Crevaux, who descended it, described it as full of obstacles to navigation, the current very strong and the stream frequently interrupted by rapids and cataracts.
  • It was initially supposed to have eight mouths, but colonial administrator Francisco Xavier Ribeiro Sampaio, in the historic report of his voyage of 1774, determined that there was but one real mouth, and that the supposed others are all furos or canos, as the diverting secondary channels of the Amazonian rivers are known.
  • In 1864–1868, the Brazilian government made a somewhat careful examination of the Brazilian part of the river, as far up as the rapid of Cupati.
  • Several very easy and almost complete water routes exist between the Japurá and Negro across the low, flat intervening country.
  • The Baron of Marajó wrote that there were six of them, and one which connects the upper Japurá with the Vaupés branch of the Negro; thus the indigenous tribes of the respective valleys have easy contact with each other.
  • The river serves as a principal means of transportation, being plied by tiny dugout canoes, larger ones, motorboats, and riverboats known locally as lanchas.
  • The boats carry a multitude of cargoes, sometimes being chartered, sometimes even being traveling general stores. In the Colombian section, the presence of guerrillas and soldiers used to limit river traffic.

MORE TO KNOW

  • The headwaters of the Caqueta-Japura River basin lies 5000 km from the Amazon river and raises in ‘Cordillera oriental of Columbia’.
  • Japura River basin is a home to many fish and reptiles and has catfishes weighing up to 91 kg and 1.8 m long. Most of the agriculture done on Japura River basin consists of rice, corn, manioc, sugar cane and cocoa crops.
  • The Japura River basin is a habitat of various fish species and reptiles.
  • The jungles of the Japura River basin has been cleared for agricultural purposes and various kinds of crops are cultivated here such as rice, corn, cotton, sugar cane, etc.
  • The Brazilian gold miners have searched and explored the areas close to the Brazilian-Colombian border in search for gold deposits.
  • The upper and middle Japura River basin has been controlled by the guerrilla forces since 1980s that carries out drug trafficking and illegal activities.

Japura Worksheets

This is a fantastic bundle which includes everything you need to know about the Japura across 20 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use Japura worksheets that are perfect for teaching students about the Japura River or Caquetá River which is a river in Brazil, Amazonas state that is about 2,816 kilometres (1,750 mi) long. It begins in the Andes mountains in Columbia where it is called the Caquetá. The river flows through Columbia into Brazil where it is called the Japura. It empties into the Amazon river.

Complete List Of Included Worksheets

  • Japura Facts
  • Info Cards
  • Famous River
  • Word Search
  • Collage
  • Parts of the River
  • Conservation
  • Japuzzle
  • Shooting Spot
  • Water Pollution
  • Reflection

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Link will appear as Japura Facts & Worksheets: https://kidskonnect.com - KidsKonnect, January 17, 2020

Use With Any Curriculum

These worksheets have been specifically designed for use with any international curriculum. You can use these worksheets as-is, or edit them using Google Slides to make them more specific to your own student ability levels and curriculum standards.

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