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Characterization of sedimentary deposits at the confluence of two tributaries

of the Pará River estuary (Guajará Bay, Amazon)

Article in Continental Shelf Research · March 2009

DOI: 10.1016/j.csr.2008.09.007

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Characterization of sedimentary deposits at the confluence of two tributaries

of the Pará River estuary (Guajará Bay, Amazon)
Aderson Manoel da Silva Gregório a,, Amilcar Carvalho Mendes b
a
Programa de Pós-graduac- ão em Geociências, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Av. Bento Gonc- alves, 9500-Bldg 43.125, 91501-970 Porto Alegre, Brazil
b
Museu Paraense Emı́lio Goeldi, Coordenac- ão de Ciências da Terra e Ecologia, Av. Perimetral, 1901, 66040-170 Belém, Brazil

a r t i c l e in fo abstract

Article history: Guajará Bay, located at the right margin of the Pará River estuary (Amazon) is formed in the confluence
Accepted 24 September 2008 of Guamá and Acará–Moju rivers. It has low-depth zones (5 m) and deep channels (25 m). The ebb
channel is located in the west section, where there is intense erosion of the margin. The flood channels
Keywords: and intertidal mudflats, which stretch out from north to south along the shore of the city of Belém do
Amazon region Pará, are in the east section. There are sandy (northwest) and muddy sedimentary deposits
River (east–southeast). Some 70% of Guajará Bay’s bottom is covered by mud. The depositation of such
Tidal settings muddy sediments and the formation of a point bar in the south section (Guamá River mouth) happen
Mud due to a decrease in the intensity of tidal currents to the south and of fluvial currents to the north.
However, the hydrodynamic regime is high, which is proved by the low clay amounts. The sand deposits
in the northwest section indicate strong tidal currents. The vast area of the bottom that is covered by
mud (90 km2) and the intertidal mudflats (150 m wide) in Guajará Bay hint the extent of the
contribution and sediments flow from Guamá and Acará–Moju rivers (drainage basin total area of
87,400 km2) to the Pará River estuary. The regular rainfall regime, typical of the Amazon region, keeps
the considerable discharges of such rivers and their high turbidity (Secchi depth p0.5 m) in the
investigation area. Generally speaking, the low topography, the great fluvial subsidy and the action
of tidal currents are the main controlling elements of the depositation and dispersion of sediments
in Guajará Bay.
& 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction (Souza Filho, 2005). The east portion is extremely irregular,

containing a little more than 20 macrotidal estuaries, extensive
The discharge from the Amazonas River alone is equivalent to intertidal sand- and mudflats, among other coastal features that
four discharges from the Congo River, the second highest, and to are typical of humid tropical latitudes. (For more information, see:
14 discharges from the Mississippi River (Degens et al., 1991). An Souza Filho (2000, 2005) and Souza Filho et al. (2008)).
average of 3–3.5 million metric tons of sediments are discharged In the central region of the ACZ is located the Pará River, whose
by the Amazonas River (Meade et al., 1985), which represents discharge, along with that from the Amazonas River, forms a wide
from 1.1 to 1.3 billion metric tons a year. river plume in the adjoining oceanic area (Santos et al., 2008). The
A large part of such sediments is deposited on the adjoining rivers are connected by the strait of Breves, in the southwest of
shelf (Nittrouer and DeMaster, 1986; Figueiredo and Nittrouer, Marajó Island (Fig. 1A).
1995; Allison and Lee, 2004; Sommerfield, 2006). However, some The Pará River estuary is considerably wide (1 km in the
20% are taken to the west by the North Brazilian current and the headwater and 50 km in the mouth/Marajó Bay) and gets vast
Guianas’ current (Kuehl et al., 1986; Eisma et al., 1991; Geyer and fluvial contribution by both margins. The main tributaries
Beardsley, 1995; Lentz, 1995; Nittrouer and DeMaster, 1996; (Tocantins, Guamá and Acará–Moju rivers) are located at the
Froidefond et al., 2004). right margin. Due to the great discharge of fresh water it takes, a
The Amazonic Coastal Zone (ACZ), which reaches the Brazilian significant reduction in the salinity of the estuary is observed. The
states of Pará, Amapá and Maranhão, if measured by a straight tidal propagation, however, goes on for several kilometers inward
line on a 1:2,500,000 scale map, has an extension of 2250 km the continent, characterizing a broad zone of fluvial–marine
transition under the impact of semidiurnal tides.
Corrêa (2005), based on bathymetric and sedimentological
 Corresponding author. data, has defined two areas (sections west and east) in the Pará
E-mail address: [email protected] (A.M.S. Gregório). River estuary, with clear differences in sediments and circulation

0278-4343/$ - see front matter & 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.csr.2008.09.007

Please cite this article as: Gregório, A.M.S., Mendes, A.C., Characterization of sedimentary deposits at the confluence of two tributaries
of the Pará River estuary (Guajará Bay, Amazon). Continental Shelf Research (2008), doi:10.1016/j.csr.2008.09.007
 ARTICLE IN PRESS

2 A.M.S. Gregório, A.C. Mendes / Continental Shelf Research ] (]]]]) ]]]–]]]

Fig. 1. (A) Elevation model (SRTM data) of the Amazonic Coastal Zone, showing the distribution of coastal plateaus (light shades of gray) and wetlands (dark shades).
Modified from Souza Filho et al. (2008). (B) Longitudinal variation of intensity of the three main physical processes, fluvial currents, tidal currents and waves, along a tide-
dominated estuary. Modified from Dalrymple and Choi (2007). (C) Tidal variation (starting from the first low tide), from 6 to 8 March, 2008, in five points of the Pará River
estuary. Tide data obtained from the tide tables by the Brazilian Navy’s Diretoria de Hidrografia e Navegac- ão (available at: http://www.dhn.mar.mil.br). (D) Seasonal
variation of important factors that influence on the oceanic processes on the continental shelf of the Amazonas River (the February arrow corresponds to 1.1 dyn/cm2).
Modified from Nittrouer and DeMaster (1996).

Please cite this article as: Gregório, A.M.S., Mendes, A.C., Characterization of sedimentary deposits at the confluence of two tributaries
of the Pará River estuary (Guajará Bay, Amazon). Continental Shelf Research (2008), doi:10.1016/j.csr.2008.09.007
 ARTICLE IN PRESS

A.M.S. Gregório, A.C. Mendes / Continental Shelf Research ] (]]]]) ]]]–]]] 3

dynamics. Both areas are highly shaped by tidal and fluvial bay is Belém, the capital city of the Brazilian state of Pará. The
currents. west margin is formed by an island group, most of whose islands
The bottom of the west section, under the action of a higher- are part of the legal area of Belém municipality.
energy hydrodynamic regime (Corrêa, 2005), presents sand bars Hydrographically, Guajará Bay is the main connection between
(in Marajó Bay) and deep channels. Near the disemboguement Guamá–Moju sub-basin and the Pará River estuary. With a total
area of the tributaries that are located on the eastern margin of area of 87,400 km2, this sub-basin has the rivers Guamá, Moju,
Marajó Island, and in deep areas (40 m) is observed fluid and Acará and Capim as its main drainage lines. The influence of the
compact mud deposits. tides on Guamá River is observed as far as the town of São Miguel
In the east section, however, the bottom presents a smoother do Guamá (see location in Fig. 2), 120 km away from Guajará Bay.
morphology, with channels along the margins and fast mud ‘‘Pororoca’’ (tidal bores) occurs at the confluence Capim/Guamá
sedimentation due to the contribution from the main tributaries and Acará/Moju (24 km to the southeast of the investigation area).
to the Pará River estuary. The mud depositation happens by It is important to stress that, in the cities of Moju and Acará, both
flocculation or decantation during tidal change or slack water. In located upon the aforementioned rivers (Fig. 2), there is a tidal
the central area of the estuary, there are transitional facies, variation. However, the final propagation limit in such rivers, as
composed of very fine sand (Corrêa, 2005). well as in Capim River, is unknown.
Notably, the tidal and fluvial currents have a fundamental part The tidal variation in the investigation area reaches 3.6 m in
in the sedimentation processes in the Pará River estuary, with the spring tides. Because it is located in a fluvial-dominated area,
considerable effect of the difference between fresh and salt waters the ebb tide lasts longer than the flood tide, especially in spring
(which favors mud depositation) and of the waves (in the mouth periods (Fig. 3A), and salinity is very low (o1 to 1 m of the
water and in shallow marginal areas). bottom, during the dry season). In some times of the year, saline
The rugosity of the bottom, the discontinued margins (with waters do not approach Guajará Bay.
many reentrances), the width of the estuary funnel, and the great
discharge of fresh water help to dissipate the tidal energy,
nullifying its convergence (hyposynchronic estuary; Dalrymple
and Choi, 2007) and decreasing its influence toward the continent
(Fig. 1C). On the other hand, the low local topography favors the
enlargement of the flood plains along the area under the influence
of tides.
Considering what Corrêa (2005) described and the ideas
presented by Dalrymple et al. (1992) and Dalrymple and Choi
(2007), the Pará River estuary primarily has the characteristics of
a ‘‘tide-dominated estuary’’. However, there is a strong action of
waves on the mouth water and on marginal shallow areas due to
the Trade Winds regime and to the wide extension of the available
fetch (40, 75 and 110 km for winds from SE, N/S and NE/SW,
respectively).
The magnitude of the fluvial component, along with the
proximity of the estuary to the equator—which potentialize tides
and practically nullifies the effects of Coriolis force (Gabioux et al.,
2005)—probably contribute to the expansion of the environ-
ment’s ‘‘mixed energy’’ zone (Fig. 1B).
Actually, what happens in the Pará River estuary is a broad
interaction, in many respects, between fluvial currents, tidal
currents, and waves, leading to the conclusion that it is a highly
dynamic, mixed-energy environment.
On the other hand, the extraordinary seasonality of environ-
mental variables, such as wind, rain, fresh water and sediment
discharge (Nittrouer and DeMaster, 1996; Fig. 1D), make the
sedimentation even more complex in the Amazonas and Pará
rivers estuaries zone, at the central portion of ACZ. This seasonality
and its influence on the region’s sedimentation processes, because
they can be mapped in short-time and medium-term scale, also
denote the magnitude of the local energy.
Guajará bay is part of this coastal scenery, and located at the
confluence of Guamá and Acará–Moju rivers. The aim of this study
is to describe the sediment deposits of this bay. We expect to
contribute to the scientific literature on the region, especially in
what comes to the understanding of the sedimentation processes
in the Pará River estuary and adjoining area, which compose the
estuarine complex of the Amazonas River.

2. Study area
Fig. 2. Guamá–Moju sub-basin and its main drainage lines, whose main
connection to the Pará River estuary is Guajará Bay. Source: Sistema de informac-
Guajará Bay is to the southeast of Amazonas River mouth, ões hidrológicas—Hidroweb da Agência Nacional de Águas (available at: http://
100 km away from the Atlantic Ocean. On the east margin of the hidroweb.ana.gov.br).

Please cite this article as: Gregório, A.M.S., Mendes, A.C., Characterization of sedimentary deposits at the confluence of two tributaries
of the Pará River estuary (Guajará Bay, Amazon). Continental Shelf Research (2008), doi:10.1016/j.csr.2008.09.007
 ARTICLE IN PRESS

4 A.M.S. Gregório, A.C. Mendes / Continental Shelf Research ] (]]]]) ]]]–]]]

cally lower areas, in marginal floodable areas, being submitted

to regular floodings. The high rainfall rates, combined with the
semidiurnal mesotide regime, cause such floodings, which are
potentialized in equinox periods.

3. Methods

Bathymetric data have been collected in Guajará Bay in

December 2002, in an area of 140 km2 (Fig. 4B). A Hydrotac
echosounder and a Trimble DGPS have been mounted on a boat in
order to collect such data. Depth and position have been
registered at 100 m intervals. With the help of bathymetric data,
a network of 122 sampling stations has been generated (Fig. 4B),
the collection happening in February 2006. In the mud content
(silt+clay) samples, 415% of the total weight was taken from a
subsample for the analysis of organic matter content. All the
samples have been washed and dried (at 60 1C for 48 h). Sand
samples have been sieved (one phi interval). In their turn, muddy
samples have been centrifuged and the amount of organic matter
has been determined by mass loss in calcination (Haynes, 1982).

4. Results

Guajará Bay presents an irregular bottom composed by mud

(fluid and compact) and sand (fine to coarse), which form
sediment banks, shaped by tidal and fluvial currents. Near both
Fig. 3. (A) Tidal variation and duration of flood tide and ebb tide flows in Guajará
margins, there are deep and well-defined channels.
Bay, for 720 h in a row (1–31 March, 2008). Source: Tide tables by Brazilian Navy’s The Larsonneur method (Larsonneur, 1977) indicates that 72%
Diretoria de Hidrografia e Navegac- ão (available at: http://www.dhn.mar.mil). (B) of the bottom is covered by LL1-type sediments (25%omud
Rainfall (1960–90 and 2007) and number of rainy days (2007) in Belém city. amounto75%; Fig. 5A). The sands are generally well selected
Source: Instituto Nacional de Meteorologia (available at: http://www.inmet.gov.br).
(Table 1), reddish (due to iron oxide capping) and are mostly in
the northwest section. The mud amount (silt+clay) is in nearly
100% of Belém’s shore (east section). The organic matter
There is a reduction in rainfall in June; and, in December, this concentration is reasonably correlated to the mud amounts,
rate starts increasing (Fig. 3B), making an annual average of varying from 0.5% to 15% (Fig. 5B).
2300 mm (Walter and Lieth, 1967). The climate is hot and Sand deposits occur in the northwest section, on the left
humid, there is no winter, the temperature variation is low, and margin of the Guamá River and in the disemboguement area of
the dry season is not well defined. Acará River (south of the investigation area). Along the east
The amount of suspend sediment varies more along a tidal margin (Belém’s shore) there are intertidal mudflats and, on the
cycle than along the year. In the rainy period, it is around 115 mg/l, southern limit of this margin, there is a long (8 km) point bar.
with a mean value of 100 mg/l during the other times of the year Along the channels of west section, flow the ebb tides currents
(Pinheiro, 1987). and the fluvial currents of Guamá and Acará rivers (Fig. 6). These
The study area is supplied with sediments coming from channels have N–S orientation, a maximum width of 1 km and
Barreiras Formation (late early Miocene to mid-Miocene), which length of 30 km. Flood tides, in their turn, flow to the south
consists of variegated, non-fossiliferous siliciclastic deposits initially by the east section channel (800 m wide and 10 km
(conglomerate, sandstone, claystone) overlying the fossiliferous long) and by the channels in the sand bank and in the point bar of
calcareous of the Pirabas Formation (late Oligocene–early northwest and southeast sections, respectively (Figs. 6 and 7).
Miocene). The term ‘‘Pós-Barreiras Sediments’’ has been applied Guamá River has a winding, well-defined channel, with a mean
indiscriminately to all deposits unconformably overlying the depth of about 12 m and NE–SW orientation. This channel, which
Barreiras Formation, and represents unconsolidated to semi- shapes Belém’s south margin, is sharply deflected towards the
consolidated sands of uncertain age between the Plio-Pleistocene north when it nears Guajará Bay, from which it becomes part of
to the present (Leite et al., 1997; Rossetti et al., 1989; Rossetti, the ebb channel.
2000, 2001; Rossetti and Goés, 2001). The sand bank in the northwest section is 6 km long and
The native terrestrial vegetation is typical of the Amazon 2 km wide (taking the 5 m isobath as reference). Part of this
rainforest (Pires and Prance, 1985), but many areas have been deposit is exposed during low tide. On and between such sand
replaced with pasture and secondary forests. There are mangroves sediments, one has observed the presence of solid spheres of mud,
in Mosqueiro Island (Gonc- alves et al., 2006). with a diameter of approximately 6 cm.
In the city of Belém, on the east margin of Guajará Bay, the The point bar located on the southeast margin of the bay, is
drainage system is dendritic, being the municipality’s territory about 8 km long, 2 km wide and 5 m deep. On the east margin
massively crossed by more than 30 water courses, that disembo- adjoining this bar is Belém’s port. Thus, the bottom dynamics of
gue, to the north, in Marajó Bay and Sol Bay, to the west in Guajará this area has been the object of studies for past decades.
Bay and, to the south, in Guamá River (Santana, 2006). Also in this section, using a 4 m isobath as reference, it is
The unplanned growth led 35% of Belém’s population to live possible to differentiate three other sedimentary deposits, named
under inadequate conditions. Many people inhabit topographi- in the nautical charts by Brazilian Navy’s Diretoria de Hidrografia

Please cite this article as: Gregório, A.M.S., Mendes, A.C., Characterization of sedimentary deposits at the confluence of two tributaries
of the Pará River estuary (Guajará Bay, Amazon). Continental Shelf Research (2008), doi:10.1016/j.csr.2008.09.007
 ARTICLE IN PRESS

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Fig. 4. (A) Detail of the section of Rio Pará estuary’s right margin where Guajará Bay is located and (B) investigation area, with bathymetric chart and location of sediment
sampling stations.

e Navegac- ão (DHN) as Banco da Cidade sand bank (BC) Banco do and fluvial currents (on the bottom of the estuary funnel) and of
Meio sandy mud bank (BM) and Banco Sul da Cidade mud bank waves (mouth and shallow marginal areas). The Guajará Bay is
(BSC). BC and BM are 1 km long and 600 m wide. BSC is 5 km the main connection of Guamá and Acará–Moju rivers to this
long, 1.5 km wide and depths less than 2 m in low tide. estuary, which, through this ‘‘passage’’, takes the drainage of a
87,400 km2 area.
The morphology and the sediment coverage of the bottom of
5. Discussion the bay are intense shaped by the tidal and fluvial currents,
corroborating with Wells’ descriptions of ‘‘tidal rivers’’ (Wells,
According to what has been presented in the introduction 1995). According to the author, ‘‘tide-dominated estuaries’’ are all
of this paper, the dominant relative energy of the Pará River those where tidal currents have a fundamental role in determi-
estuary is not clearly defined, due to the broad action of tidal ning the final destination of the sediments that are transported

Please cite this article as: Gregório, A.M.S., Mendes, A.C., Characterization of sedimentary deposits at the confluence of two tributaries
of the Pará River estuary (Guajará Bay, Amazon). Continental Shelf Research (2008), doi:10.1016/j.csr.2008.09.007
 ARTICLE IN PRESS

6 A.M.S. Gregório, A.C. Mendes / Continental Shelf Research ] (]]]]) ]]]–]]]

Fig. 5. Map of the Larsonneur method (A) and organic matter distribution (B) in the investigation area’s sediments.

Table 1
Sedimentological characteristics of samples from investigation area

Geomorphologic province Na Depth (m—spring ebb tide) Mean (Ø)b Sorting Skewness

Ebb channel 32 2–18 2.97–5.74 (4.85) 0.46–1.36 (0.72) 0.56–0.33 ( 0.03)

Flood channel 21 2–19 3.79–5.88 (4.86) 0.60–0.88 (0.65) 0.28–0.28 ( 0.04)
Guamá River channel 12 4–15 1.94–5.51 (4.35) 0.39–1.45 (0.64) 0.25–0.44 ( 0.56)
NW sandy deposits 19 3–10 2.19–5.17 (4.19) 0.45–1.04 (0.70) 0.47–0.25 ( 0.02)
SE muddy deposits 27 2–27 2.81–5.54 (4.78) 0.33–1.83 (0.75) 0.45–0.40 ( 0.10)
Guamá River sand deposits 11 3–9 2.51–5.44 (4.60) 0.50–1.56 (0.65) 0.69–0.05 ( 0.15)

a
Number of samples.
b
The minimum and maximum values are given with an average for each geomorphologic province shown in parentheses.

from a river’s head water. ‘‘Tidal rivers’’, in their turn, as a sub-set In Guajará Bay, despite the evident impact of semidiurnal
of tide-dominated estuaries, have many estuarine morphologic mesotides, there is a dominance of fluvial processes. The bigger
and sedimentologic characteristics. However, they occur in the duration of the ebb tide, as compared to that of the flood tide
lowest topographic portion of rivers with wide mouths and large (intensified in spring tides due to the broadening of the tidal
discharge, as Amazon, Pará and De La Plata rivers. prism), the relatively low depths, the channel-crossed bottom, the
Guajará Bay, 100 km away from the disemboguement area of low salinity, among other characteristics, are all evidence of this
the Pará River estuary, takes a great (and undetermined) discharge energetic situation.
from Guamá and Acará–Moju rivers, from the southeast and south It is known that waves act directly on sediments’ re-suspen-
sections, respectively. From the north section come the flood tides, sion; tidal currents and the wind, in their turn, have a larger role
with a flow that begins in the east section and, 40 min later, in in the definition of the transportation pattern, in the reworking
the west section. In spring tides, the average speed of superficial and in the dispersion of sediments (Ogston et al., 2005;
flood tide currents is 1 m/s in Belém Port, reaching a maximum Sommerfield, 2006). On the other hand, if the sediments
speed of 2.5 m/s facing Mosqueiro Island (DHN, 1962). supply is high, the dispersion and the depositation are complex

Please cite this article as: Gregório, A.M.S., Mendes, A.C., Characterization of sedimentary deposits at the confluence of two tributaries
of the Pará River estuary (Guajará Bay, Amazon). Continental Shelf Research (2008), doi:10.1016/j.csr.2008.09.007
 ARTICLE IN PRESS

A.M.S. Gregório, A.C. Mendes / Continental Shelf Research ] (]]]]) ]]]–]]] 7

Fig. 6. Aerial view (551 tilt) of Guajará Bay’s bottom. The localization of the bay in a riverine area within the Pará River’s estuarine system, justifies the ebb tide flows (to the
north) lasting 7,5 h. The flood tide flows begin in sector east. About 40 min later the flood tide flows is observed throughout the Guajará’s system.

Please cite this article as: Gregório, A.M.S., Mendes, A.C., Characterization of sedimentary deposits at the confluence of two tributaries
of the Pará River estuary (Guajará Bay, Amazon). Continental Shelf Research (2008), doi:10.1016/j.csr.2008.09.007
 ARTICLE IN PRESS

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Fig. 7. Cross-sectional profiles of Guajará Bay and Guamá River mouth. See Fig. 6 for location of sections.

(Allen and Duffy, 1998; Walsh and Nittrouer, 2004), with and north extremity), the bottom is eroded by the bottom
the seasonality of environmental variables (tide, rain, fresh currents’ force. In these areas occur outcrop of ferruginous
water discharge, sediments discharge, etc.) directly affecting the concretions and claystone from Barreiras Fm. (see Figs. 6 and 7).
amount of material that is transported/deposited (Harris et al., Despite the intense erosion in some sections of the bottom and
1993; Staub et al., 2000; Dyer et al., 2000; Nittrouer and the bay’s margins, constant dredging is necessary to keep the
DeMaster, 1996). navigability of the access channels to Miramar Petrochemical
In tide-dominated environments, as we approach the river Terminal and to Belém Port. The area where these ports are
mouth, the intensity of fluvial currents decreases, as that of tidal located (east margin) presents fast mud sedimentation. The mud
currents increases (Dalrymple et al., 1992; Dalrymple and Choi, depositation along the whole east margin and the formation of
2007). In this sense, considering the N–S orientation of the the point bar in the southern area are due to a decrease in the
Guajará Bay’s, the intensity of tidal currents decreases to the south intensity of tidal and fluvial currents, to the south and to the
and that of fluvial currents to the north. The sedimentation north, respectively, during the various tide cycles. Guajará Bay has
processes and the morphology of the central area’s bottom are an elevated hydrodynamic regime, which is evidenced by the low
controlled by the interaction between these currents. The action clay amounts (o20%) (Fig. 8).
of waves (H0.7 m; Pinheiro, 1987) generated by NE winds (with The sandy sediments in Guajará Bay—which are reddish due to
available fetch of 20 km) is noted in the acceleration of erosive iron oxide capping—have the ferruginous arenite Barreiras
processes on the southwest margin and in the re-suspension of Formation as their source-rock. In a great part of Guajará Bay’s
fine sediments in shallow areas (intertidal and point bar) of the islands and along the margins of Guamá and Acará rivers, one can
east and southeast margins. observe Barreiras Formation cliffs under constant reworking by
The intense erosive processes that can be observed in the tides. The sandy coverage of the bottom is kept thanks to strong
investigation area (Silveira, 1992), directly related with fluvial ebb currents and, subsequently, by flood currents, which erode
currents and, secondarily, with N/NE waves, cause intense the fine material that had been deposited in previous tidal cycles.
tumbling of the margin and hint the Guamá River channel’s Guajará Bay’s muddy sediments can also come from Barreiras
migration to the north and Guajará Bay’s ebb channel migration to Formation. The large area of the bottom that is covered by mud
the west. In the area where the channel gets narrower (center-east (90 km2) and the wide of intertidal mudflats (150 m) are

Please cite this article as: Gregório, A.M.S., Mendes, A.C., Characterization of sedimentary deposits at the confluence of two tributaries
of the Pará River estuary (Guajará Bay, Amazon). Continental Shelf Research (2008), doi:10.1016/j.csr.2008.09.007
 ARTICLE IN PRESS

A.M.S. Gregório, A.C. Mendes / Continental Shelf Research ] (]]]]) ]]]–]]] 9

Fig. 8. Guajará Bay’s hydrodynamic by Pejrup diagram (Pejrup, 1988).

evidence of how intense sediments flow is in the hydrographic The organic matter amounts in the east section are associated
sub-basin of Guamá and Acará–Moju rivers to Pará River to the in natura sewage discharge from Belém and from the sewers
estuary. The regular rainfall regime, typical of the Amazon region, of around 40 fish processing industries located in the area. The
keeps the considerable fresh water discharges of these rivers southern portion of the ebb channel is under the influence of
and the high turbidity (Secchi depth o0.5 m) in the Guajará Guamá River’s discharge, which borders Belém’s south margin
Bay region. Generally speaking, as happens in the ria-type region and also takes untreated urban sewage.
of South Korea (Lee et al., 2007), low topography, great As the size of the grains gets smaller, the capacity of such
fluvial discharge and tidal currents’ action are the main con- sediments trapping pollutants increases. Also, on the east margin
trollers of the depositation and dispersion of sediments in the of the bay, where muddy sediments are predominant, is located
investigation area. the Miramar Petrochemical Terminal, a place where cargoes of

Please cite this article as: Gregório, A.M.S., Mendes, A.C., Characterization of sedimentary deposits at the confluence of two tributaries
of the Pará River estuary (Guajará Bay, Amazon). Continental Shelf Research (2008), doi:10.1016/j.csr.2008.09.007
 ARTICLE IN PRESS

10 A.M.S. Gregório, A.C. Mendes / Continental Shelf Research ] (]]]]) ]]]–]]]

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Guajará–Belém. M.Sc. Dissertartion, Federal University of Pará, Belém, PA,
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