River
Meta River
1,000 km from source to mouth · Colombia and Venezuela.
Colombia and VenezuelaFlows into Orinoco River3rd longest in Colombia
In numbers
Length
1,000km
Average flow
6,500m³/s
Basin
93,800km²
Drop
129m
from 167 m to 38 m
Countries
2
The journey
From source to mouth
1,000 km of river and 10 stops on the way: 5 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 167 m
- 0 kmPuerto López35,097 people
- 4 kmMetica Rivertributary
- 51 kmUpía Rivertributary
- 168 kmManacacías Rivertributary
- 261 kmCravo Sur Rivertributary
- 290 kmOrocué8,460 people
- 375 kmPauto Rivertributary
- 379 kmSanta Rosalía4,255 people
- 468 kmLa Primavera17,626 people
- 959 kmPuerto Carreño20,936 people
- 1,000 kmOrinoco Riverat 38 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
Tributary of the Orinoco in the Llanos of central Colombia
At the mouth it carries 6,496 m³/s on average: 2.6 Olympic pools every second. It drops from 167 m to 38 m, 0.1 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 93,800 km², about the size of HU. 3.3 million people live in it. Highest water: from July to September; lowest: from January to April. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- Puerto LópezLargest city on its banks · 35,097 people
- Vanguardia Airport (VVC)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 73 km from the cityCar hire at BOG airport (Bogota)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water9 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From December to FebruaryThe best months to visit
Meta River, month by month
Highest water: from July to September
Lowest water: from January to April. Best months to visit: from December to February.
From about 860 m³/s in the lowest month to 10,900 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
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
The basin
Meta River: the basin in numbers
109,267 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 3.3millionpeople live in the basin
- 30/km²people per km²
- 550maverage altitude of the basin
- 2,384mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 24.8°Caverage air temperature
- 5%protected areas
- 0.1%covered by lakes
- 1.8km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 13% Forest
- 3% Cropland
- 63% Pasture
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
Meta River: what you find on the way
- 9Ferry piersPuerto cabuyaro, Puerto Borracho and 7 more
- 8River beachesIsla Manati, Isla Caño Negro, Isla La Tagua and 5 more
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.4 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Meta 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.
1mountain at the sourcePeakyas
Mountains at the source (1)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Alto Menegua6.5 km away
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
Meta River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Orinoco RiverVenezuela2,140 km30,000 m³/sTributaries (6)
Also: Upía River, Cravo Sur River, Pauto River, Guatiquía River, Manacacías River, Metica River
Nearby
Rivers nearby
Where these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q655251) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Course, profile, basin | RiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed from the source to the mouth 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 | 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 island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.Coming soonVisit 
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Every river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.You are here
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Every canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Coming soonVisit