Tunjuelo River

The Tunjuelo or Tunjuelito River is a river on the Bogotá savanna and a left tributary of the Bogotá River. The river, with a length of 73 kilometres (45 mi) originates in the Sumapaz Páramo and flows northward through the Usme Synclinal to enter the Colombian capital Bogotá. There, the river is mostly canalised flowing westward into the Bogotá River. It is one of the three main rivers of the city, together with the Fucha and Juan Amarillo Rivers.

Tunjuelo River Tunjuelito River
Location of the Tunjuelo River in Colombia
Etymology	Muysccubun: "cerro de los tunjos"
Native name	Río Tunjuelo (Spanish) Río Tunjuelito (Spanish)
Location
Country	Colombia
Department	Cundinamarca
Municipalities	Bogotá
Localities	Sumapaz Usme Ciudad Bolívar Tunjuelito Fontibón
Physical characteristics
Source	Sumapaz Páramo
• coordinates	4°18′25″N 74°07′50″W
Mouth	Bogotá River
• coordinates	4°37′45″N 74°13′21″W
Length	73 km (45 mi)
Basin features
River system	Bogotá River  Magdalena Basin   Caribbean Sea

Etymology

The names Tunjuelo and Tunjuelito ("little Tunjuelo") are derived from the Cerro de los Tunjos, also Los Tunjos Lake, named after the tunjos, the religious votive figurines of the indigenous language of the Muisca, who inhabited the Bogotá savanna before the Spanish conquest.^[1]

Description

source

mouth

Source and mouth of the Tunjuelo River on the Bogotá savanna

The Tunjuelo River has a total length of 73 kilometres (45 mi) and originates in the Sumapaz Páramo, in the southern part of Bogotá.^[2] It flows through the southern part of the Colombian capital, south of the Fucha River, and has the largest drainage basin of the rivers of Bogotá.^[3] The river flows through the Usme Synclinal, where the type localities of various geological formations (among others the Marichuela Formation) are situated. The Tunjuelo River forms the border between the localities Usme and Ciudad Bolivar and between the namesake locality Tunjuelito and Ciudad Bolívar. The Tunjuelo River is highly contaminated.^[4]

Geology

Main article: Eastern Hills, Bogotá § Geology

The Tunjuelo River valley hosts the type localities of various geologic formations of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense.

Age	Formation	Lithologies	Notes
Pleistocene	Tunjuelo Formation	Conglomerates, sandstones, shales	[5]
Early Pliocene	Marichuela Formation	Conglomerates	[6]
Late Miocene
Early Oligocene	Usme Formation	Shales, sandstones, conglomerates	[6]
Late Eocene
	Regadera Formation	Sandstones, conglomerates, shales	[7]
Early Eocene
	Bogotá Formation	Mudstones, shales, siltstones, sandstones	[8]
Late Paleocene

Wetlands

mouth

Wetlands in the Tunjuelo River basin

Main article: Wetlands of Bogotá

Three of the fifteen protected wetlands of Bogotá are located in the Tunjuelo River basin.

Wetland	Location	Altitude (m)	Area (ha)	Notes
La Vaca	Kennedy	2548	7.96	[9]
La Isla	Bosa	2550	7.7	[10]
Tibanica	Bosa Soacha	2542	28.8	[11]

Gallery

• 
  Tunjuelo River in Ciudad Bolívar
• 
  Tunjuelo River
• 
  Tunjuelo River
• 
  Tunjuelo River in Tunjuelito
• 
  Canalised part of the river

See also

• Colombia portal
• Geography portal

• List of rivers of Colombia
• Eastern Hills, Bogotá
• Bogotá savanna, Sumapaz Páramo
• Fucha River, Juan Amarillo River