River
Esmeraldas River
320 km from source to mouth · Ecuador.
EcuadorFlows into Pacific Ocean1st longest in Ecuador
In numbers
Length
320km
Average flow
31,200m³/s
Basin
21,418km²
Drop
3,432m
from 3,437 m to 5 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
320 km of river and 4 stops on the way: 2 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 3,437 m
- 7 kmLaguna Quilotoa2.9 km²
- 215 kmRosa Zarate42,121 people
- 216 kmGuayllabamba Rivertributary
- 316 kmEsmeraldas218,727 people
- 320 kmPacific Oceanat 5 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Ecuador
At the mouth it carries 31,217 m³/s on average: 12 Olympic pools every second. It drops from 3,437 m to 5 m, 11 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 21,418 km², about the size of SV. 3.2 million people live in it. Highest water: from March to April; lowest: from August to November. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- EsmeraldasLargest city on its banks · 218,727 people
- Carlos Concha Torres International Airport (ESM)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 4 km from the cityCar hire at UIO airport (Quito)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From July to NovemberThe best months to visit
Esmeraldas River, month by month
Highest water: from March to April
Lowest water: from August to November. Best months to visit: from July to November.
From about 310 m³/s in the lowest month to 1,800 m³/s in the highest. An estimate: the monthly flow is modelled from the lowest and highest months of WaterGAP (RiverATLAS, 1971–2000) and the rain and snow along the river (WorldClim). Dams change the real rhythm. The chip is the average air temperature; below it, the month's rain.
Plan the trip
Plan the trip: boat trips, a bed by the river, a car
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The basin
Esmeraldas River: the basin in numbers
21,111 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 3.2millionpeople live in the basin
- 151/km²people per km²
- 1,523maverage altitude of the basin
- 1,945mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 18.4°Caverage air temperature
- 18%protected areas
What covers the basin
- 18% Forest
- 15% Cropland
- 19% Pasture
- 4% Towns and cities
RiverATLAS (HydroATLAS v1.0, CC BY 4.0): land cover, people, protected areas, glaciers and dams over the whole basin upstream of the mouth.
Along the river
Esmeraldas River: what you find on the way
- 12WaterfallsCascada Cristobal, La Chorrera del Napa, Cascada del Diablo and 9 more
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.0 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Esmeraldas River in our other atlases
What our sister atlases know about the waterfalls on this river, the lakes it flows through, the beaches at its mouth, the mountains where it rises and the islands off its mouth.
1lake on its wayLakeyas
1mountain at the sourcePeakyas
Lakes and reservoirs (1)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Laguna Quilotoakm 72.9km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
Mountains at the source (1)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Quilotoa5.8 km away3,800m
From space
The source and the mouth, seen from orbit
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 by EOX IT Services GmbH (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2016), CC BY 4.0. The glowing line is the river as drawn by RiverATLAS.
Photos
Esmeraldas River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
Tributaries (3)
Also: Guayllabamba River, Quinindé River, Blanco River
ColombiaWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q2293631) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Course, profile, basin | RiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed along the river network from the point given by Wikidata |
| Flow | WaterGAP (RiverATLAS), 1971–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Climate along the river | WorldClim (RiverATLAS), 1970–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Towns, bridges, dams | Wikidata · CC0; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0 |
| Along the river | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Our other atlases | Lakeyas, Peakyas — Wikidata · CC0; © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0; HydroLAKES · CC BY 4.0; NOAA OISST |
Every source and licence is on the data sources page.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers or canyons?
Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.
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Every canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Coming soonVisit