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Araguaia River Floodplain: Size, Age, and Mineral Composition of a Large Tropical Savanna Wetland

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Abstract

The Araguaia River floodplain is a large wetland in the tropical savanna belt (cerrado) in the southern Amazon basin. Studies using multitemporal satellite Landsat 5 TM images with a spatial resolution of 30 m indicate a surface area at maximum flood level of 88,119 km2. During the low-water period, only 3.3 % of the area is covered by water. Flooding is the result of the annual rise in the water level of the Araguaia River and of local rainfall and insufficient drainage during the rainy season. Sedimentology studies have distinguished between an active recent and sub-recent floodplain, which covers ~20 % of the area, and a paleo-floodplain probably several hundreds of thousand years in age. Paleo-floodplain sediments are strongly weathered and marked by the clay mineral association of kaolinite, gibbsite, goethite, and Al-chlorite, predominantly formed from feldspars and micas. The active paleo-floodplain participates in the hydrological cycle but does not receive recent sediments from the river. Higher-lying, not flooded areas (inactive paleo-floodplain) are probably the remnants of paleo-levees, now in an advanced stage of erosion. A hypothesis to explain the genesis of the floodplain is proposed herein.

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Acknowledgments

This article was conceived and written within the framework of the program of the National Institute for Wetland Research and Technology (INCT-INAU). We gratefully acknowledge the financial assistance of the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq); the Science Foundation of the State of Mato Grosso (FAPEMAT), and the Federal University of Mato Grosso.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Marine Geology, Research Institute Senckenberg, Suedstrand 40, 26382, Wilhelmshaven, Germany

    Georg Irion

  2. Instituto Nacional de Ciência e Tecnologia em Áreas Úmidas (INCT-INAU), Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso (UFMT), Av. Fernando Corrêa da Costa, s/n, Boa Esperança, 78.060-900, Cuiabá, Mato Grosso, Brazil

    Gustavo Manzon Nunes, Catia Nunes-da-Cunha, André Pereira Dias & Wolfgang Johannes Junk

  3. Universidade de Cuiabá (UNIC), Av. Manoel José de Arruda, n° 3.100, Jardim Europa, 78.065-900, Cuiabá, Mato Grosso, Brazil

    Erica Cezarine de Arruda

  4. Centro de Pesquisa do Pantanal (CPP), Rua Dois, n° 497, sala 02, Boa Esperança, 78.068-360, Cuiabá, Mato Grosso, Brazil

    Maitê Santos-Tambelini

  5. Universidade Federal do Ceará (UFC), Av. Paranjana, n° 1.700, Campus do Itaperi, 60.740-000, Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil

    Jáder Onofre Morais

Authors
  1. Georg Irion
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  2. Gustavo Manzon Nunes
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  3. Catia Nunes-da-Cunha
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  4. Erica Cezarine de Arruda
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  5. Maitê Santos-Tambelini
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  6. André Pereira Dias
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  7. Jáder Onofre Morais
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  8. Wolfgang Johannes Junk
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Correspondence to Catia Nunes-da-Cunha.

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Irion, G., Nunes, G.M., Nunes-da-Cunha, C. et al. Araguaia River Floodplain: Size, Age, and Mineral Composition of a Large Tropical Savanna Wetland. Wetlands 36, 945–956 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-016-0807-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-016-0807-y

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