Rio Solimoes and the Rio Negro Confluence is probably one of the world’s most fascinating and famous phenomenons. Alos known as the The Meeting of Waters or Encontro das Águas in Portugese, is the coming together of the waters from the Rio Negro and the Rio Solimões. This point serves as the opening of the main Amazon River. The most amazing and distinct about this phenomenon is the fact that both waters do not mix like that of conventional meeting bodies of water.
The Rio Negro has dark colored water, called such because of the water’s color. The Rio Solimoes however has murky brown colored water. Both rivers’ water flow downstream for almost 6 kilo meters without mixing which in itself a marvel, and has become a famous attraction. But science has an explanation; both waters have different temperatures and speed. They also have different densities, not to mention the debris that both carry. Rio Negro flows slower at a speed near 2 km per hour with a temperature of 28°C. However the Rio Solimões is much colder at 22°C flows faster, 4 to 6 km per hour.
Both rivers carry with them fragments from the upper parts of the Amazon basin making it rich and a good mix for the wild life and vegetation in the lower parts of the Amazon River. These two rivers and the pout to with they meet also gives shelter to various fishes, some of them found only in the Rio Solimoes & Rio Negro Confluence.