Iquitos - Geography

Geography

Iquitos is located within the boundaries of the Province of Maynas, north of Loreto. It covers an area of 368.9 km2 (142.4 mi2), comprising the districts of Belén, San Juan Bautista y Punchana. The town is 106 m above sea level. It is also the most northern Peruvian city.

The city is located in the middle of the Amazon river system. It is located on the left bank of the Amazon River, which provides an economic life property, including trade and transport. Itaya and Nanay rivers are a natural boundary of the physical expansion of the city: one located in the south and the second to the north, which both flow into the Amazon. Near Iquitos also there are a number of ponds and lakes, Moronococha Lake prominently, which defines the city in the northeast. This feature makes the city on an fluvial island.

Geologically, the city is settled in a Tertiary-Quaternary formation lithologically composed by little-consolidated lutites, with remains of flora or fauna, and numerous white-sand lenses of abundant silicon, and the residual soils are sandy, almost clayey and variably deep. Physiography, is a hazy landscape due to the undulations of the soil erosion caused by rain.

Earthquakes in the city are very rare, if any, are very deep. Iquitos is located in Region 3 of Systematic Regionalization Map of Peru, which means that the city has a low coefficient seismic value, although the 2011 Peru earthquake, which occurred southeast of Contamana, was felt in the city as a small and unexpected jolt.