Canindé River (Piauí)

Canindé River
Basin
Main source Piaui/Pernambuco border
522 m (1,713 ft)
River mouth Parnaiba River
104 m (341 ft)
Countries Brazil
Physiognomy
Length 350 km (220 mi)

The Canindé River is a seasonal waterway flowing into the Parnaiba River near Amarante in the State of Piauí in northeastern Brazil. The stream flows for approx. 350 km from headwaters in the foothills on the Piaui/Pernambuco border (northwest of Afrânio, Pernambuco) northwest into Piauí then through Paulistana and Oeiras to Amarante on the junction of the Canindé with the Parnaiba. Oeiras is the main commercial center in the Canindé River valley. The biome type along the river is caatinga, which is composed of typical northeastern Brazilian semiarid vegetation. The river and fauna and flora of the environs were described by the German naturalists Johann Baptist von Spix and Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius during their travels in Brazil in April and May, 1819.[1]

The Canindé and its tributary the Piauí River[Note 1] which enters it about 125 km below Oeiras, constitute what is often referred to as the Caninde-Piaui river system. The Caninde / Piauí River basin with an area of approximately 75,000 km2, is the largest sub-basin (29.7%) of the Parnaíba River Basin, which constitutes 98.3% of the land area of the State of Piaui.

The Caninde-Piaui river system and its tributaries present a temporary torrential flow regime: flow rate is characterized by abrupt variations due to tropical storms during the January - April rainy season.[2]

Among the land-based economic activities of the Rio Caninde valley are the exploitation of Brazilian Wax palms (Copernicia prunifera) for the manufacture of carnauba wax, the extraction and commercialization of rubber from the Pará rubber tree (Hevea brasiliensis), and maniçoba (tapioca) from the Manioc plant (Manihot esculenta), and cattle ranching including dairy farming.

etymology

The name of the river comes from the Tupi-Guarani Kanindé, and has several meanings:

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Originally Piauhi, the river from which the province derives its name

References

  1. ↑ "Book seventh Chapter 2". Travels in Brazil in the years 1817-1820 2. 1824–1831. |first1= missing |last1= in Authors list (help)
  2. ↑ Pellerin, J. (1984). Les bases physiques. In: GUIDON, N. (org.). L'aire archéologique du sud-est du Piauí. Paris: Recherche sur les Civilisations. pp. 11–12.
  3. ↑ Collar; et al. (1992). Threatened Birds of the Americas.

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Friday, May 06, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.