Casiquiare canal (link between the Orinoco and Amazon basins)
Canal del Casiquiare (unión de las cuencas del Orinoco y el Amazonas)
- Date
- 1800 · confidence high
- Place
- Casiquiare, Amazonas, Venezuela
- Credited to
- Alexander von Humboldt and Aimé Bonpland
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What was discovered
Exploration of the natural channel that links the Upper Orinoco with the Rio Negro, which confirmed and mapped the connection between two great river basins. Humboldt fixed its position with instruments and corrected maps of the region.
The Casiquiare had been described earlier by Jesuits (Manuel Román, 1744) and the Solano boundary expedition (1756); Humboldt fixed it with astronomical measurements and publicised it.
What it led to
- confirmation of a river bifurcation on one continent
- accurate mapping of the Orinoco and the Rio Negro