The Meandering Ucayali River

  • Released Wednesday, May 6, 2026
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Peru’s restless Ucayali River is constantly changing shape. Landsat satellites captured the the headwater of the Amazon over four decades as it twisted its way across the landscape, meandering, shifting channels, and forming oxbow lakes.

A natural-color Landsat time series of the Ucayali River, spanning 1985 to 2023, showing the meandering shifts of the waterway and the formation of oxbow lakes.

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NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio

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This page was originally published on Wednesday, May 6, 2026.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, May 6, 2026 at 3:39 PM EDT.