The role of tectonics and climate in the late Quaternary evolution of a northern Amazonian River

•The geological history of Amazon rivers is an issue open for debate.•This work analyzes the morphology and sedimentation of a northern Amazonian river.•Two alluvial plains up to 18.7 ka old are present along the studied Branco River.•A long segment of this river was established only in the late Pleistocene.•This occurred mainly due to a southward river capture by tectonic processes.

The Amazon basin has most of the largest rivers of the world. However, works focusing the geological evolution of the trunk river or its tributaries have been only partly approached. The Branco River constitutes one of the main northern Amazonian tributaries. A previous work proposed that, before flowing southward into the Negro-Amazon Rivers, the Branco River had a southwest to northeast course into the Caribbean Sea. The present work aimed to establish if the proposed change in the course of this river is supported by morphological and sedimentological data. Other goals were to discuss the factors influencing river development and establish its evolution over time within the chronological framework provided by radiocarbon and optically stimulated luminescence dating. The work considered the entire course of the Branco River downstream of the Precambrian Guiana Shield, where the river presumably did not exist in ancient times. The river valley is incised into fluvial sedimentary units displaying ages between 100 and 250 ky old, which record active and abandoned channels, crevasse splay/levees, and point bars. The sedimentary deposits in the valley include two alluvial plain units as old as 18.7 ky and which intersects a Late Pleistocene residual megafan. These characteristics suggest that a long segment of the Branco River was established only a few thousand years ago. Together with several structural anomalies, these data are consistent with a mega-capture at the middle reach of this river due to tectonic reactivation in the Late Pleistocene. This integrated approach can be applied to other Amazonian tributaries to unravel how and when the Amazonian drainage basin became established.