Source and mouth of the Amazon River. Unique Amazon: “The Longest River in the World Amazon on the physical map of the world

Amazon

It is not for nothing that the Amazon is called a great river - it is the most water-bearing and deep-flowing river in the world. The waters of the Amazon carry one quarter of all river waters on Earth. It is also one of the longest rivers - its length is about seven thousand kilometers, its width is about 80 km, and its depth is on average 135 meters.

Where is the Amazon? The Amazon is a river located in South America. It was formed by the confluence of two rivers - the Marañon and the Ucayali. Its source is in the Andes, which is a territory belonging to Peru.

The Amazon is the river with the largest basin. Its basin occupies a huge area in the Amazonian lowland, approximately equal to the area of the entire Australia.

Most of the Amazon is located in Brazil, but it also covers many other countries. These include Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, Colombia.

The Amazon flows near the equator, in a sublatitudinal direction, flowing into the Atlantic Ocean. The Amazon forms the largest delta, the area of which exceeds 100 thousand km² and includes the largest river island on the planet, Marajó.

The Amazon has a huge number of tributaries feeding it, and the length of twenty of them is more than one and a half thousand kilometers. The most famous tributaries: Jurua, Purus, Madeira, Xingu, Isa. The Amazon and its tributaries form an extensive system of waterways, so shipping flourishes on the river.

The river is so huge that rising waters occur in its various parts at different times, so the Amazon is full of water all year round.

Read about others geographical objects in our section.

We welcome all readers of the site “I and the World”! If you are asked the question: where is the Amazon River? Can you answer which countries it flows through and on which continent it is located? Where does it start and where does it end? In what direction does it flow? In this article we will try to answer these and other questions.

This incredible river is full of surprises that you simply never imagined. Almost 20% of the oxygen for the surrounding world is produced by its forests, and reserves drinking water enough large number. It is so large that some tribes living on its banks are completely unfamiliar with civilization.

Without a doubt, the Amazon is the largest in South America. In what direction does it flow? Its waters flow from west to east, crossing almost the entire continent and flowing into the Atlantic Ocean.

It has three sources: if we count its length in km, then from one of them the length will be over 7000. Most of it flows in Brazil, the rest of the distance belongs to Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia. Total area its basin is almost the same as the entire continent of Australia.

The Amazon's diet is quite diverse: from many tributaries, from precipitation, since the climate on the river is constantly humid. She also receives snow recharge. The world map clearly shows that the river is located almost on the equator, and a huge amount of precipitation falls here every year. This is also why it is very full of water. There are a huge number of rapids in this part, so there can be no talk of any navigation.

The nature of the flow of the Amazon depends on the topography of the area through which it flows. At the beginning, the current is quite stormy, because you have to make your way through mountains and hills. Going lower, the water flows quite smoothly and calmly, due to the slight slope of the terrain.

The photograph shows that the Amazon floods so much that it looks more like a sea and reaches 80 km in width. But this figure cannot be compared with the width of the mouth - 325 km and a depth of 135 m.

Let's give some pretty interesting facts. In Brazil, where the Amazon flows, a very long underground river was discovered just under the Amazon at a depth of 4 km. According to some indications, its width reaches 400 km, and the flow speed is only 1 mm per second.

The fauna is so diverse that more than half of all species living on our planet live here. And there are more than 10 million of them. The entire river basin is called the “kingdom of palm trees”, because of all the plants, more than 800 species of palm trees grow here. In many photos and pictures we see the diversity of vegetation in its pool.

The possibilities for economic development are quite considerable. This includes fishing, shipping, and the construction of power plants, and its huge reserves of water are used by humans to irrigate farmland. And although the use of the river is not so great compared to its size, even the smallest intervention in the life of the Amazon has a detrimental effect on the environment.

Which river is longer: Volga, Nile or Amazon?

The Volga is approximately two times shorter than the Amazon, although it is considered the longest in Europe. And the Nile River, which flows in Africa, is slightly inferior in length to the Amazon, so we also talked about the longest river in the world (although no one can accurately say the distance of these two rivers).

We tried to do for you beautiful description Amazon, tell about its inhabitants, about its features, in which countries it flows, where are the sources and mouth of this famous river, its length in kilometers.

If you want to visit there, try to be more attentive to its dangers. And we say goodbye to you! See you again! If you liked the article, share it with your friends.

From lessons school geography I know that the longest river in the world is the Nile. But, as it turned out, this information is outdated, like school textbooks. Today, the longest river is the Amazon, with a length of almost 7 thousand kilometers. I want to tell you in detail about her whereabouts.

Where is the Amazon

In 1542, on the banks of a river unfamiliar to them spanish conquistadors entered to fight the Indians, headed by stood women. Therefore river the Spaniards named after the Greek warriors women - Amazons. Although it is possible that the leaders of the Indians were men, just with long hair. The sources of the river were quite difficult to find. But today it is known that the Apacheta stream flows from the glacier of Mount Misma. This is in Peruvian Andes. From this stream and the deep-flowing Amazon begins. If we combine the length of all its branches, then the length of the river will be 25 thousand kilometers. Amazonleaks through the following countries:

Bolivia;
Brazil.

Forest, through which the waters of the Amazon flow, is one of the the wettest places on Earth.

Amazon Animals

Wildlife of the river- This huge ecosystem, which surprises with its diversity. They live here terrible and dangerous creatures, who quite often become the main characters of Hollywood films:

black caiman- an Amazon monster that can reach 6 meters in length;
the most big snake in the world - anaconda;
arapaima- a giant predatory fish, the length of which reaches 3 meters;
one of the most dangerous sharks in the world - bull shark;
piranha- can gnaw flesh to bones in a few minutes.

But all these animals are not the mostdangerous. They are led by lfrog! These colorful frogs are capable of kill with one drop of yoursseveral poisonsdozens of people. But plant and animal Amazon world still nnot fully studied. Some areas of the dense Amazon forest have never been touched by humans. It is believed that these the forests are the mostoldest on the planet- they are about 100 million years old. 20% of all air appears here.

They live in the Amazon forests Indian tribes, whose lives are very difficult to study. They are difficult to reach and their lifestyle is very solitary. And by the way, via Amazon still couldn't get through anybridge.

The word “Amazon” has been known to mankind since ancient times. This was the name given to female warriors who lived in Black Sea coast in ancient times. They were extremely resilient, skillful and fearless in battle. Legends were written about their courage and bravery, and the male warriors who tried to subdue these beasts shamefully fled from the battlefield, abandoning their weapons, horses, carts and rejoicing only in the fact that they remained alive.

In the early 40s of the 16th century, the Amazons were no longer heard of. Matriarchy ordered a long life 400 years before the birth of Christ, and the power of men was established everywhere on the planet, who forgot to even think that the other sex was once the head of everything on earth.

Such a disregard for ancient legends played a cruel joke not with anyone, but with themselves Spanish conquistadors, who have already become famous in the lands of South America for their cruelty, unprincipledness and pathological greed.

At the end of 1541, one of these squads of selected thugs fearlessly delved into the lands of the South American continent. Headed it Francisco de Orellana(1505-1546). He set himself the goal of crossing the continent from west to east and reaching the shores of the Atlantic.

At first, the Spaniards made their way through the jungle on foot, but soon they came to the banks of a deep river and, having built boats, sailed along it. Sometimes, along the way, they came across villages nestled at the edge muddy water. The invaders immediately landed on shore in order to check the material wealth of the people and announce to them that they had now received the status of subjects of the Spanish crown.

Amazon

The path was long, difficult, the landscape around was monotonous, but be that as it may, in the spring of 1542 the conquistadors found themselves near a large village, widely spread out on both banks of a wide river. Climbing onto the high wooden floor, the subjects of the King of Spain looked around. Several frail figures of long-haired Indians loomed in the distance. The stern men confidently moved along the boards that creaked pitifully under the weight of their powerful bodies towards these pitiful aborigines.

The course of subsequent events wrote several shameful pages not only in the history of the Kingdom of Spain, but also in the history of the entire male race. The puny Indians did not want to demonstrate their material wealth or recognize the power of the King of Spain. They did not even want to tolerate the presence of strangers in the territory of their village.

After a short and furious skirmish, the fearless conquistadors fled shamefully. The defeat was doubly offensive, since their opponents were women. There was not a single man among them, but judging by the frantic courage with which these ladies attacked the heavily armed strangers, they did not feel the need for support from the opposite sex.

Francisco de Orellana made a couple more armed attempts, but the resistance of the women was not only not broken, but on the contrary - these tactical attempts of the conquistadors infuriated the warriors so much that the subjects of the King of Spain were forced to hastily retreat. They ran down the wide river as fast as they could so as not to end up at its bottom as food for the caimans.

Having counted their losses and licked their wounds, the Spaniards experienced a feeling of involuntary admiration for these courageous residents impenetrable jungle. At the end of the journey, Francisco de Orellana named the river on which the brave women lived the Amazon. Everyone liked the name, and after Cieza de Leona, a Spanish priest, geographer and historian, published his book “Chronicles of Peru” in 1553, where he uses the same word to refer to the river, Amazon has become official name the deepest river on the planet.

Source of the Amazon River

Nowadays, the great river is considered the longest, although quite recently the Nile occupied first place in this parameter. It stretches across the African continent for almost 6,700 km. It seemed that no one could surpass such a distance. The Amazon River occupied, although an honorable, second place. Its length was 6400 km. It came from a group of lakes located at an altitude of 5,700 meters above sea level in the Peruvian Andes. From this place it was very close to Lima - only 230 km to the southwest.

This location of the source of the Amazon was announced back in early XVIII century Jesuit Samuel Fritz. The Italian naturalist Antonio Raymond also warmly supported him in the second half of the 19th century. He declared that the great river was beginning its thorny path in the cordillera (a cluster of parallel ridges and mountain ranges) Raura, where it receives the first life-giving drops of moisture from melting snow from the top of Jarupa. Here it timidly makes its way through the small stream of Gaitso to lakes Santa Ana and Lauritsokh.

The mountain river Marañon emerges from them. Its rapid streams reach the Ponjo de Manceres canyon, flow along it, and descend into the valley. Here they turn into a wide, majestic and slow river, which solidly and slowly carries its waters to the east. As much as 1800 km it flows in splendid isolation. Having passed this path, Marañon meets the Ucayali River. The latter is clearly inferior to the first in width: it is three times narrower. Having reunited, these two flows form the great Amazon, ending its journey in the waters of the Atlantic.

At first glance, everything is clear and clear: found source of the Amazon River, her main tributary Marañon. Logically, this issue should be considered resolved and safely closed. But the ways of the Lord are inscrutable, and the convolutions human souls unknown and triply mysterious.

In 1934, a certain Colonel Gerardo Dianderas made a statement in the Peruvian geographical society. The essence of his somewhat excited speech was that the priority is not the Marañon River, but the Ucayali, which begins with the Apurimac River, which in turn originates on the slope of Mount Huagra. Such a bold and daring vision of the problem did not impress the venerable researchers, although the colonel’s statement had its own reason.

It just so happened historically that narrower and shallower rivers are always given the green light. If we take the Kama and the Volga, then at the place where they meet the Kama is fuller, but the river that has merged into a single whole is called the Volga. The same can be said about the Angara and Yenisei. The cleanest and widest Angara reunites with the muddy and narrow Yenisei. It would seem that all the trump cards are in the hands of the river flowing from Lake Baikal, but in the Northern Arctic Ocean It is the Yenisei that flows into it. Mississippi and Missouri did not escape this fate. By all measures, Missouri is in first place, but proudly North America is for some reason Mississippi.

The Ucayali River in size was not even close to the Marañon, a large navigable river. This is probably, by analogy with other rivers, the reason why many researchers began to zealously search for the sources of the Ucayali River.

In 1953, Frenchman Michel Perron headed to the Peruvian Andes. 15 years later, an American couple, Frank and Helen Schrider, visited there. In 1969, a large and serious work, “General Geography of Peru,” was published. It said that the original source of the Amazon River begins on Mount Misli, in southern Peru, 220 km west of Lake Titicaca.

Thus, the great river was moved east and made much longer. But where exactly it originates - no one knew about it yet. In 1971, American photographer Laurent McIntyre headed up the Apurimac River. Having made a long and difficult journey, he came to the conclusion that the source of the Amazon River is the Caruasantu stream, located at 5160 meters above sea level.

But the persistent American was not the last. After him, other explorers went to the Andes, who named other streams, for example, such as Yanococha or Apacheta. The question hung in the air until 1996. It was at this time that an international expedition was created, which was faced with the task of finding the true source of the Amazon River and finally dotting the I’s.

The researchers completed the task. Nowadays, all schoolchildren, all schools in the world know that The Amazon River originates in the Peruvian Andes at an altitude of 5170 meters. Coordinates of this point: 15° 31′ 05″ south latitude and 71° 43′ 55″ west longitude. This is where the Apacheta stream begins its journey. It merges with the Caruasantu stream, and together they form the Loketu stream.

The latter gains strength from many mountain streams and passes into the Hornillos River, which, in turn, merges with a couple more of the same mountain rivers, turns into a swift and stormy stream of Apurimac. Its long path runs through the highlands, and only after reaching the valley, having absorbed many other waters, does it calm down, spread across the lowlands and become Ucayali.

The Ucayali is a large river. Its width is at least a kilometer. It calmly carries its waters until it meets the even more powerful Marañon River. And now two rivers merge into one. Further on flows the purebred Amazon. Now its length is 7100 km, and, being the longest river in the world, it is worthy of the title of queen of rivers.

Amazon River Delta

Her River Majesty ends its movement in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean. Here the fresh stream is so great that it dilutes sea salt almost 300 km. from the mouth. This attracts many species of sharks to the river, which you don’t feed with bread, but let them flounder in fresh water. These scary predators rise upstream of the Amazon for 3500 km.

The river delta occupies a huge area of 100 thousand km², its width is 200 km. It is dotted with many straits and channels, between which there are small, large and simply huge islands. The huge islands are Mashiana, Kaviana, Zhanauku and many others. Wide straits: Perigoso, South, North - they cut the land into pieces, depriving it of the opportunity to move out to sea, which is typical of large river deltas.

The Amazon Delta does not protrude into the waters of the Atlantic, but, on the contrary, is shifted inland. This is most likely due to the powerful ocean tides, which constantly clash with the powerful currents of the river. In this struggle, the cosmic forces of the Moon prevail over the forces earth's surface. sea tide begins to crowd out fresh water: drives it back into the mouth.

The result of such opposition is a huge shaft of water, which reaches a height of four meters. It rolls in a wide front upstream at a speed of 25 km/h. The height of the wave gradually decreases, the speed decreases, but this happens far from the border with the ocean. The impact of the tide is felt even more than 1000 km from the river mouth.

The Amazon is a deep-sea river. At the point where it flows into the ocean, its depth reaches 100 meters and very slowly decreases its value upstream. Even at a distance of 3000 km from the mouth, the water thickness reaches 20 meters. Therefore, for ocean ships, the waters of this river are their home. The last river port accepting sea vessels is in the city of Manaus, 1700 km away. from the mouth. River water transport darts back and forth across the Amazon over a vast distance of 4,300 km.

Amazon River Basin

The queen herself, of course, is impressive, but we must not forget that more than 200 tributaries flow into it. Moreover, almost half of them are navigable rivers. Some of these rivers are very deep and stretch inland for more than 1,500 km. All of them, together with the Amazon itself, create the greatest formation, the likes of which are nowhere else on the planet. This Amazon River Basin.

It has not just a huge, but a gigantic area. It is equal to 7180 thousand km²; its borders include the lands of such South American countries as Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia. The area of the entire continent is 17.8 million km², which is only 2.5 times larger than the royal domains of the Amazon, and such a part of the world as Australia would fit perfectly into this territory.

The river basin practically coincides with the Amazonian lowland, which is called Amazonia. Its area is 5 million km²: from the Andes to Atlantic Ocean and from the Guiana to the Brazilian plateaus. There is a huge forest area here - humid rain-forest. In terms of its size, it has nothing equal on Earth and produces a gigantic amount of oxygen, which is why it is called lungs of the planet.

Essentially, the Amazon is jungle and swamps that run parallel to the equator, so throughout the lowlands climatic conditions almost identical. Temperature here is high and stable. The temperature stays at 25-28° Celsius all year round. Even at night, the temperature almost never drops below 20° Celsius.

The rainy season here begins in March and lasts until May. Heavy rainfall causes river flooding. In the Amazon, the water level rises by 20 meters, flooding everything around for tens of kilometers. The flood lasts 120 days, then the river retreats to its original banks, sometimes changing its course in some places.

Amazon wildlife

Given these climatic conditions, there is a huge amount of different living creatures in the river, some species of which are not found in other parts of the planet. From predatory fish Sharks are found here. This is mainly a blunt-nosed shark (bull shark). There are different sizes more than three meters, and the weight reaches 300 kg. It can also attack humans, but given its bony constitution, this type of food is not a priority for it.

The Amazon River is famous and bloodthirsty piranhas . This small fish, the sizes of which range from 16 to 40 cm depending on the species (two dozen species in total). Their weight does not exceed one kilogram. In their youth small bodies They have a silvery-blue color with dark speckles. With age, the color changes. Old piranhas are olive-silver with a purple or red tint. A well-defined black stripe appears along the entire edge of the caudal fin.

A distinctive feature of small predatory fish is their teeth. They are triangular in shape, 4-5 mm high. The jaws of a piranha are designed in such a way that when closed, upper teeth fit clearly into the grooves between the lower teeth. This provides the fish death grip. They can bite through both bone and stick. Pieces of meat instantly end up in the voracious jaws of such a beast. In just a few minutes, a school of piranhas can gnaw the carcass of a horse or pig, leaving only a bare skeleton.

Amazonian dolphins hunt piranhas effectively. These are medium-sized individuals. Their length rarely exceeds two meters, and their weight usually ranges from 100 to 200 kilograms. Caimans also feast on piranhas, but in general they prefer other food, since the amount of meat on the bodies of these small predators is significantly inferior to the amount of meat on the more well-fed bodies of other animals.

In total, there are 2,500 species of a wide variety of fish in the Amazon. What's it worth? electric eel. This snake-like creature is 2 meters long, and its voltage is electric charge equal to 300 volts. There is a great abundance of decorative fish in the river. Many of them have long been established in home aquariums in all parts of the planet. For example, the same swordtails and guppies are probably known on all continents.

Wealth underwater world queen of the rivers would not be complete without the existence of such scary creature, How anaconda. Water boa, the most large snake in the world, reaching a length of 8-9 meters - that’s what an anaconda is. Its skin is grayish-green in color with two rows of large brown spots of a round or oblong shape and serves as an excellent camouflage both in the jungle and in the muddy water of the great river.

The anaconda has practically no opponents. It can destroy both caiman and jaguar. Her throw is lightning fast, her grip is deadly. The snake wraps its strong muscular body around the victim and strangles it. It then opens its mouth, which can stretch to incredible sizes, and slowly places itself over the carcass of the strangled prey. Namely, it does not swallow the same caiman or caliban, but stretches over it like a glove on a hand. After this, the anaconda lazily lies in warm water or jungle and waits for the victim to be digested.

There are a great many legends, traditions, and stories about anacondas, most of which are beautiful fiction. Some European researchers consider the anaconda to be an absolutely safe and cowardly animal. There are many stories about how fearless travelers grabbed a water boa constrictor crawling in panic into the jungle by the tail, pulled it into the light of day and stunned it with a blow to the head.

Perhaps such heroes once existed, but nowadays neither photography nor film has recorded anything like this. Please note that an anaconda's jump takes a split second. Before the unfortunate person has time to gasp, he will find himself entwined in beautiful colorful rings, which are powerful clots of muscles. They are with terrible force they begin to squeeze the body - a couple of minutes, and the victim turns into an ordinary piece of meat, quite suitable for internal consumption.

Anaconda attack

Something similar happened in the mid-90s in one of the narrow tributaries of the Queen of Rivers. Three French travelers were sailing on a boat through calm, muddy water. A weak breeze was blowing, the jungle rustled green leaves in a friendly manner, the weak rays of the sun pleasantly caressed people’s faces. It seemed all the world around us was in a relaxed and peaceful state.

The idyll was broken immediately and instantly. The man sitting at the stern cried out weakly. The comrades who looked back managed to notice a huge snake that quickly emerged from the water, wrapped itself twice around their friend’s body and sank with him into the depths.

The boat rocked mercilessly, so while the travelers restored the balance of the vessel, several precious minutes passed. In this section of the river there were three meters to the bottom. The French began to circle over the scene of the tragedy, but it was impossible to see anything through the liquid, muddy thickness. After an hour, realizing the futility of their time, they were forced to go to the nearest town.

A detachment of armed people was equipped, which was able to arrive in this area only two days later. danger zone. Searches for the human body and huge snake they didn't give anything. Nothing like this had ever happened in this area before. The rescue team began to doubt the sincerity of the travelers. It was decided to curtail the search, but suddenly one of the people in the boat noticed an incomprehensible shadow flashing at the surface of the river. We decided to check what it could be.

Having blocked off a section of the river with a net, the searchers began to pull it to the shore. Suddenly, a huge snake head appeared from the water. It measured half a meter in diameter. Then a body surfaced, the thickness of which reached a meter, but the length was impossible to determine, since the entire back of the body was hidden in the water. The monster quickly rushed towards the people sitting in the boat. They froze, paralyzed with horror.

Having hit the metal side of the ship with its entire mass, giant snake crushed it like a tin can. The lost net sank into the river, and the people, frightened to death, found themselves in the water. The monster swerved long tail and disappeared into the muddy abyss. By the time the rescuers got out onto solid ground, by the time they came to their senses, there was no trace of the terrible monster.

For a whole month after this, reinforced detachments of armed men combed all nearby waters. No traces of this huge anaconda were found. The fact that it was an anaconda was indicated by the color of the skin, which all eyewitnesses saw very well. Only its size, according to all data, exceeded the size of an ordinary snake by three times.

No traces of this monster were subsequently found; none of the people ever saw him again. This whole incident could be mistaken for a mass hallucination, but this is hardly possible. The mystery that emerged from the muddy water instantly disappeared into it, showing only a small piece of its existence to a small group of eyewitnesses.

The indigenous people of the Amazon are the real Amazons

Great River The Amazon is replete with such surprises, leading people to a feeling of complete bewilderment and confusion. But the mysterious world of these waters is not going to reveal itself to those who mercilessly cut down the jungle, destroy fauna, thoughtlessly destroy the richest flora and fauna of the most unique formation on Earth - the Amazon, which rightfully bears the honorary title of the lungs of the planet.

The article was written by ridar-shakin
Based on materials from foreign and Russian publications

The Amazon (port. Amazonas) is a river in South America, the largest in the world in terms of basin size, depth and length. river system. Formed by the confluence of the Marañon and Ucayali rivers. The length of Marañon from the source is 6400 km, Ucayali is over 7000 km. The Amazon is also fed by numerous tributaries; about 20 of them are more than 1500 km long. Most significant tributaries: on the right - Jurua, Purus, Madeira, Tapajos, Xingu, Tocantins; on the left - Isa, Japura, Rio Negru.

Together with its tributaries, the Amazon forms a system of inland waterways with a total length of more than 25 thousand km. The Amazon is a deep-sea river. At the point where it flows into the ocean, its depth reaches 100 meters and very slowly decreases its value upstream. Even at a distance of 3000 km from the mouth, the water thickness reaches 20 meters, so for ocean-going ships, the waters of this river are their home. The last river port accepting sea vessels is in the city of Manaus, 1700 km away. from the mouth. River water transport darts back and forth across the Amazon over a vast distance of 4,300 km. Main ports (from bottom to top): Belem, Santarem, Obidus, Manaus (Brazil), Iquitos (Peru).

The river is located in the north of South America, begins its journey from the Andes in Peru and ends in the Atlantic Ocean in Brazil. The length of the Amazon ranges from 6259 to 6800 km different sources. The Amazon River and its tributaries provide 20% of all fresh water in the world. Of the 20 longest rivers in the world, 10 are in the Amazon Basin.

The Amazon was discovered by the conquistador Francisco de Orellana, the first European to cross South America in its widest part. In the summer of 1542, his squad allegedly saw a tribe of legendary Amazons and entered into battle with them. Today it is believed that these were either Indian women who fought alongside men, or squire-mistresses, or simply long-haired Indians whom the Spaniards mistook for women. Initially, de Orellana wanted to name the river after himself, but after the battle he settled on the “Amazon” option.

Most of the Amazon basin belongs to Brazil, the southwestern and western regions belong to Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia. Flowing mostly through the Amazon Lowland in a sublatitudinal direction near the equator, the Amazon flows into the Atlantic Ocean, forming the world's largest delta.

The Amazon River is the most water-bearing river in the world, carrying one-fifth of the world's fresh water to the ocean. globe. The flow of water is so huge that, pouring into the Atlantic Ocean, the Amazon changes the salt composition and color of the ocean over a distance of 320 kilometers.

The abundance of the Amazon is explained by the fact that its northern and southern tributaries are located in different hemispheres; Accordingly, floods occur in different times year: on the right tributaries - from October to April (summer season in Southern Hemisphere), on the left - from April to October (summer season in the Northern Hemisphere).

During the dry season, the Amazon River reaches a width of 11 kilometers, covering 110 thousand square meters with water. km, and during the rainy season it increases three times, covering 350 thousand square meters. km and spreading over 40 km or more.

Another achievement of the Amazon is the mouth of the river, the largest delta in the world, the width of which reaches 325 km. The Amazon Delta does not protrude into the waters of the Atlantic, but, on the contrary, is shifted inland. This is most likely due to the powerful ocean tides, which constantly clash with the powerful currents of the river. In this struggle, the cosmic forces of the Moon prevail over the forces of the earth's surface. The sea tide begins to squeeze fresh water - drives it back into the mouth.

Here the freshwater flow is so great that it dilutes the sea salt for almost 300 km. from the mouth. This attracts many species of sharks to the river, which you don’t feed with bread, but let them flounder in fresh water. These terrible predators rise 3,500 km upstream in the Amazon.

Flora and fauna

Essentially, the Amazon is a jungle and swamp that runs parallel to the equator, so the climatic conditions are almost the same throughout the lowlands. The temperature here is high and stable. The temperature stays at 25-28° Celsius all year round. Even at night, the temperature almost never drops below 20° Celsius.

The flora that lives here is only 30% studied by scientists. 25% of all medicinal substances in the world that are used in medicine are extracted from plants Amazon forest. 1800 bird species, 250 different mammals, 1500 various types fish - all this makes up the flora and fauna of the Amazon.

There are many secrets hidden in the forests: even today many major tributaries The Amazons have not been explored. Of the approximately 15,000 species of Amazonian animals, thousands of birds and fish, as well as hundreds of mammals, are unclassified. A rough list of animal species, some well-known, others rare, and others on the verge of extinction, includes the jaguar, tapir, peccary, spider monkey, sloth, armadillo, cayman crocodile, freshwater dolphin, boa, anaconda.

Forest birds include toucan, parrot, macaw, calibri, and gaviao. Among insects, there are more than 1,800 species of butterflies and over 200 species of mosquitoes. Fish such as piranha, tucunare, pyraracu, anuana, piraiba, porace (electric eel) exist in such diversity that biologists cannot identify the catch in the markets of Belem.

Hamza underground river

According to the Department of Geophysics of the Brazilian National Observatory, in the same direction as the Amazon, but at a depth of 4 thousand meters, an underground river flows, fed groundwater. Its flow is estimated at 3 thousand m³/s.

The river, originating in the foothills of the Andes, is 6 thousand kilometers long and stretches from west to east to the coast of the Atlantic Ocean almost under the Amazon River basin. Given scientific discovery became public in August 2011 after a report made at a meeting of the Brazilian Geophysical Society in Rio de Janeiro. The river is unofficially named Hamza (port. Rio Hamza) in honor of the pioneering scientist Valiya Hamza (port. V. Hamza), born in India, who spent more than 45 years exploring the river.

The study found that, with the exception of flow direction, the Amazon (aboveground) and Hamza (underground) rivers have significantly different characteristics, the most obvious of which are their width and flow speed. While the width of the Amazon River varies from one to one hundred kilometers, the underground Hamza River reaches a width of 200-400 kilometers. However, the flow speed in the Amazon is five meters per second, and the speed of underground river does not exceed 1 millimeter per second.

So, the Hamza River flows extremely slowly at a depth of about 4 thousand meters underground through porous soils parallel to the Amazon. According to preliminary calculations, the width of the Hamza reaches 400 km, and the water flow is approximately 3900 m³/s. The speed of the Hamza current is only a few meters per year. This is even slower than glaciers move, so it can be called a river rather conditionally. The Hamza flows into the Atlantic Ocean at great depth and the water of the Hamza River has high level salinity.

So, is this Great Amazon River the longest river on our planet? Brazilian National Center space research(INPE) states that the Amazon is the longest river in the world. The center's experts studied the flow in the north of the South American continent. water artery using satellite data. They have solved one of geography's greatest mysteries by finding the birthplace of a river that crosses Peru, Colombia and Brazil before reaching the Atlantic Ocean. This point is located in the mountains in the south of Peru, and not in the north of the country, as previously thought. At the same time, scientists installed several satellite beacons, which greatly facilitated the task for experts from INPE. Now, according to the National Center for Space Research, the length of the Amazon is 6992.06 km, while the Nile flowing in Africa is 140 km shorter (6852.15 km). So this makes the South American river not only the deepest, but also the longest in the world. Until this moment, the Amazon was officially recognized as the most full-flowing river, however, it was always considered second in length after the Nile (Egypt).