The Amazon River is undisputedly the largest and the longest of all the rivers flowing across the globe! Want to know why?
This wonder river takes its origin from the Mantaro River in Peru, and is as voluminous as eleven Mississippi Rivers put together! Another mind-boggling fact about it is that, during rainy seasons, the river mouth can be as wide as 483 km, gushing out up to 500 billion cubic feet of water per day into the Atlantic Ocean! The force of the freshwater current is so immense that it flows continuously for about 201 km out into the sea, before getting mixed with the salty seawater! That is, you could be kilometres out in the sea and yet drink freshwater from it!
As for its length, the Amazon is estimated to be around 7000 km long, crisscrossing across countries like Brazil, Peru, and Columbia. The Amazon branches out into over 1,100 tributaries; the Purus, the Jurua and the Madeira being just a few of the longest ones.
Every day, tons of suspended sediment, which make the Amazon water muddy and turbid, gets carried along with its water current. This sediment gets deposited as silt at the river mouth. The Majuro Island, the world’s largest river island, was formed by this silt deposit. It is as big as Switzerland!
Picture Credit : Google
