Amazon River Facts
- The Amazon River is
located in South America. It runs through Guyana, Ecuador, Venezuela, Bolivia,
Brazil, Colombia and Peru.
- The length of the
Amazon River is approximately 6400 kilometres (4000 miles).
- During the wet
season, the Amazon River can reach over 190 kilometres (120 miles) in
width.
- There are no bridges
that cross the Amazon, mostly because there is no need, the majority of the
Amazon River runs through rainforests rather than roads or cities.
- The largest city
along the Amazon River is Manaus. Located in Brazil it is home to over 1.7
million people.
- There are over 3000
known species of fish that live in the Amazon River, with more constantly being
discovered.
- It is estimated that the Amazon discharges between 34 and 121 million liters of water per second (and a daily average of 3 million tons of dirt/silt) into the South Atlantic Ocean.
- The annual amount of water from the river accounts for one-fifth of all the fresh water that drains into the oceans of the world!
- The amount of water and silt is so vast that the salt levels and colour of the Atlantic Ocean are different from the rest of the ocean for a distance of about 320 km (from the mouth of the river).