Information about Amazon river
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The Amazon River (UK: /ˈæməzən/, US: /ˈæməzɒn/; Spanish: Río Amazonas, Portuguese: Rio Amazonas) in South America is the largest river by discharge volume of water in the world, and the disputed longest river in the world.[2][6][n 2]
Amazon River
Rio Amazonas
Rio Amazonas - Parintins.jpg
The Amazon River in Brazil
Amazonrivermap.svg
Amazon River and its drainage basin
Native name
Río Amazonas (Spanish)
Location
Country
Brazil, Colombia, Peru
City
Iquitos (Peru); Leticia (Colombia);
Tabatinga (Brazil); Tefé (Brazil);
Itacoatiara (Brazil) Parintins (Brazil);
Óbidos (Brazil); Santarém (Brazil);
Almeirim (Brazil); Macapá (Brazil);
Manaus (Brazil)
Physical characteristics
Source
Río Mantaro
• location
Huancayo, Huancayo Province, Peru
• coordinates
10°43′55″S 76°38′52″W
• elevation
5,220 m (17,130 ft)
Mouth
Atlantic Ocean
• location
Brazil
• coordinates
0°42′28″N 50°5′22″W[1]
• elevation
0 m (0 ft)
Length
6,575 km (4,086 mi)[n 1]
Basin size
7,050,000 square kilometres (2,722,020 sq mi)[2]
Width
• minimum
1 km (0.62 mi)
• maximum
100 km (62 mi)
Depth
• minimum
20 m (66 ft)
• maximum
100 m (330 ft)
Discharge
• average
209,000 cubic metres per second (7,400,000 cu ft/s; 209,000,000 L/s; 55,000,000 USgal/s)[5]
• minimum
180,000 cubic metres per second (6,400,000 cu ft/s; 180,000,000 L/s; 48,000,000 USgal/s)
• maximum
340,000 cubic metres per second (12,000,000 cu ft/s; 340,000,000 L/s; 90,000,000 USgal/s)
Basin features
Tributaries
• left
Marañón, Napo, Japurá/Caquetá, Rio Negro/Guainía, Putumayo, Trombetas
• right
Ucayali, Javary, Juruá, Purús, Madeira, Tapajós, Xingu
Topography of the Amazon River Basin
The headwaters of the Apurímac River on Nevado Mismi had been considered for nearly a century as the Amazon's most distant source, until a 2014 study found it to be the headwaters of the Mantaro River on the Cordillera Rumi Cruz in Peru.[12] The Mantaro and Apurímac rivers join, and with other tributaries form the Ucayali River, which in turn meets the Marañón River upstream of Iquitos, Peru, they form what countries other than Brazil consider to be the main stem of the Amazon. Brazilians call this section the Solimões River above its confluence with the Rio Negro[13] forming what Brazilians call the Amazon at the Meeting of Waters (Portuguese: Encontro das Águas) at Manaus, the largest city on the river.
At an average discharge of about 209,000 cubic metres per second (7,400,000 cu ft/s; 209,000,000 L/s; 55,000,000 USgal/s)—approximately 6,591 cubic kilometres per annum (1,581 cu mi/a), greater than the next seven largest independent rivers combined—the Amazon represents 20% of the global riverine discharge to the ocean.[14] The Amazon basin is the largest drainage basin in the world, with an area of approximately 7,050,000 square kilometres (2,720,000 sq mi). The portion of the river's drainage basin in Brazil alone is larger than any other river's basin. The Amazon enters Brazil with only one-fifth of the flow it finally discharges into the Atlantic Ocean, yet already has a greater flow at this point than the discharge of any other river.[