Amazon River Fact File
Countries: Brazil, Colombia and Peru.
Length: About 6400 km (4000 miles)
Source: Andes Mountains, Peru.
Mouth: Atlantic Ocean.
Other River Amazon Facts
- The Amazon River is the second longest river in the world (after the Nile River) – although this is often debated – but it has the largest water-flow in the world by far. It also has the largest drainage basin of any river in the world.
- The River Amazon is massive. It’s width varies between 1.5 and 10 km, but during the wet season it can become several times wider than this.
- It is often referred to as the River Sea because of its large size.
- The Amazon releases more than 200,000 cubic metres of water per second into the Atlantic Ocean.
- One fifth of the freshwater entering the world’s oceans comes from the Amazon River.
- The Amazon River is home to the Amazon River Dolphin (or boto) – the largest species of river dolphin. The river is also home to anaconda, more than five thousand different species of fish (including electric eels, piranha and catfish), crabs, turtles and caiman (a type of crocodilian).
- The Amazon has over 1000 tributaries.
Click here to discover some facts about other rivers, or learn more about some of the other longest rivers in the world.
