This work constitutes an example of intraplate application of the modern concept of Structural Geomorphology, which characterizes landforms and drainage patterns within the framework of the neotectonics of the Amazon region. The neotectonics conception adopted here comprises the various structural systems, the sedimentary sequences, the land systems and the pattern and anomalies of drainage which were developed during the late Tertiary and Quaternary.

Controversy is particularly intensive over the channel of the Amazon river, between the cities of Manaus and Belém, where plains are found in uplifted areas and also a large diversity of drainage patterns and anomalies. The main goal of our work is to establish a correlation between the complex geomorphological patterns and the structures derived from the transcurrent movements of the Miocene-Pliocene and late Pleistocene-Holocene. This implies in a revision of the concepts based on morphoclimatic conditions or in the domain of vertical movements.

The scale of the geomorphological problems dictated the methodology, on a regional basis, which led to the characterization of six morphotectonic compartments as follows: Manaus-Nhamundá, Tupinambarana, Baixo-Tapajós, Comandaí, Gurupá e Marajoara.

The development of these campartments is not directly related to the evolution of the northern and western borders of the South-American plate.