Bank strength variability and its impact on the system-scale morphodynamics of the upper Amazon River in Brazil

Large anabranching rivers form channels in sediments of varying strength, resulting from erosional and depositional processes that act over geological timescales. Although bank strength variability is known to affect channel morphodynamics, its impact on the migration of large sand bed rivers remains poorly understood. We report the first in-situ measurements of bank strength from a ~100 km long reach of the Solimões River, the Brazilian Amazon River upstream of Manaus. These show that cohesive muds in Pleistocene terraces along the river’s right margin have bank strengths up to three times greater than Holocene floodplain deposits comprising the left bank. Image analysis suggests these resistant outcrops determine channel-bar dynamics: channel widening and bar deposition are inhibited, which lowers planform curvature and reduces erosion of the opposing bank. Planform analysis of the 1,600 km long Solimões River between 1984-2021 shows that where the channel is associated with Pleistocene terraces, lower rates of bank erosion and bar deposition are evident. Heterogeneity in bank strength is thus a first-order control on the large-scale morphodynamics of the world’s largest lowland river.