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The Amazon River (UK: / ˈ æ m ə z ən /, US: / ˈ æ m ə z ɒ n /; Spanish: Río Amazonas, Portuguese: Rio Amazonas) in South America is the largest river by discharge volume of water in the world, and the longest or second-longest river system in the world, a title which is disputed with the Nile. [3] [19] [n 2]
There are also substantial areas of the world that do not "drain" in the commonly understood sense. In polar deserts , much of the snowfall sublimates directly into the air and does not melt into flowing water, while in tropical deserts precipitation may evaporate before joining any substantial water course.
Fresh river water flowing from the Mississippi into the Gulf of Mexico does not mix into the salt water immediately. The images from NASA's MODIS show a large plume of fresh water, which appears as a dark ribbon against the lighter-blue surrounding waters. These images demonstrate that the plume did not mix with the surrounding sea water ...
It can be thought of as a list of the biggest rivers on Earth, measured by a specific metric. For context, the volume of an Olympic-size swimming pool is 2,500 m 3 (88,000 cu ft). The average flow rate at the mouth of the Amazon is sufficient to fill more than 83 such pools each second.
The headwater of a river or stream is the point on each of its tributaries upstream from its mouth or estuary into a lake, sea, or confluence with another river. Each headwater is considered one of the river's sources, as it is the place where surface runoffs from rainwater, meltwater, or spring water begin accumulating into a more substantial ...
Not all precipitation flows directly into rivers; some water seeps into underground aquifers. [3] These, in turn, can still feed rivers via the water table, the groundwater beneath the surface of the land stored in the soil. Water flows into rivers in places where the river's elevation is lower than that of the water table. [3]
The Amazon River is the largest river in the world in terms of its flow rate. In addition, it is the second longest river, measuring 6,575 km (4,086 mi) [3] from its source to the mouth of the Atlantic Ocean [4] after the Nile River which is considered to be the longest river in the world (see Source of the Nile River), although there is some dispute.
In particular, there seems to exist disagreement as to whether the Nile [3] or the Amazon [4] is the world's longest river. The Nile has traditionally been considered longer, but in 2007 and 2008 some scientists claimed that the Amazon is longer [ 5 ] [ 6 ] [ 7 ] by measuring the river plus the adjacent Pará estuary and the longest connecting ...