The main structural and geomorphological features along the Amazon river are closely associated with tectonic events throughout the Mesozoic and Cenozoic.

The Mesozoic tectonic setting is characterized by two distinct extensional segments (Amazon and Marajó basins). The Amazon basin is formed by NNE-SSW normal faults, which control the emplacement of dolerite dykes and the deposition of the sedimentary pile. During the next subsidence phase, under low rate extension, probably in the early Tertiary, much of the drainage systems reversed, directing the paleo-Amazon river to flow towards the east. The Marajó basin encompasses NW-SE normal faults and NE-SW transcurrent faults. The normal faults controlled the deposition of thick rift and post-rift sequences, and the emplacement of dolerite dykes. The Arari Lineament, which marks the northwestern boundary of the Marajó basin, has been working as a linkage corridor between the paleo and modern Amazon river and the Atlantic Ocean.

The neotectonic, from Miocene, comprises two sets of structural and geomorphological features. One set (Miocene-Pliocene) encompasses two transpressive trending NE-SW domains and one transtensive trending NW-SE domaine, which are linked to E-W and NE-SW right-hand strike-slip systems.. The second set (Pliocene-Holocene) refers to two triple junctions of R-R-T and T-T-R types, and two large transtensive segments, which have controlled the orientation of the modern drainage patterns.