Aurora do Tocantins

Coordinates: 12°42′46″S 46°24′28″W / 12.71278°S 46.40778°W / -12.71278; -46.40778 Aurora do Tocantins is a municipality located in the Brazilian state of Tocantins. Its population was 2,869 (2005) and its area is 753 km².

References

Tocantins

Tocantins (Portuguese pronunciation: [tokɐ̃ˈtʃĩs]) is one of the states of Brazil. (From: Tukã´, Toucan + tï, beak. lit. "Toucan's beak" in Tupi language). It is the newest of the 26 Brazilian states, formed in 1988 and encompassing what had formerly been the northern two-fifths of the state of Goiás. Tocantins covers 277,620.91 square kilometres (107,190.03 sq mi) and has a population of 1,496,880 (2014 est.). Construction of its capital, Palmas, began in 1989; most of the other cities in the state date to the Portuguese colonial period. With the exception of Araguaína there are few other cities with a significant population in the state. The government has invested in a new capital, a major hydropower dam, railroads and related infrastructure to develop this primarily agricultural area.

Tocantins has attracted hundreds of thousands of new residents, primarily to Palmas. It is building on its hydropower resources. The Araguaia and Tocantins rivers drain the largest watershed that lies entirely inside Brazilian territory. The Rio Tocantins has been dammed for hydropower, creating a large reservoir that has become a center of recreation. Because it is in the central zone of the country, Tocantins has characteristics of the Amazon Basin, and also semi-open pastures, known as cerrado. The Bananal Island (Ilha do Bananal), in the southwest of the State, is the largest fluvial island in the world. Tocantins is also home to the Araguaia National Park, the Carajás Indian reservations, and Jalapão state park, which is about 250 kilometres (160 mi) from Palmas. There, the rivers create oases in the dry landscape, attracting many ecotourists to the region.

Tocantins (disambiguation)

Tocantins may refer to:

Tocantins River

The Tocantins River (Portuguese pronunciation: [tokɐ̃ˈtʃĩs], [tukɐ̃ˈtʃĩs]) is a river in Brazil, the central fluvial artery of the country. In the Tupi language, its name means "toucan's beak" (Tukã for "toucan" and Ti for "beak"). It runs from south to north for about 2,640 km. It is not really a branch of the Amazon River, although usually so considered, since its waters flow into the Atlantic Ocean alongside those of the Amazon. It flows through four Brazilian states (Goiás, Tocantins, Maranhão and Pará) and gives its name to one of Brazil's newest states, formed in 1988 from what was until then the northern portion of Goiás.

Course

It rises in the mountainous district known as the Pireneus, west of the Federal District, but its western tributary, the Araguaia River, has its extreme southern headwaters on the slopes of the Serra dos Caiapós. The Araguaia flows 1,670 km before its confluence with the Tocantins, to which it is almost equal in volume. Besides its main tributary, the Rio das Mortes, the Araguaia has twenty smaller branches, offering many miles of canoe navigation. In finding its way to the lowlands, it breaks frequently into waterfalls and rapids, or winds violently through rocky gorges, until, at a point about 160 km above its junction with the Tocantins, it saws its way across a rocky dyke for 20 km in roaring cataracts.