River
Amazon
By far the largest river in the world by discharge, delivering roughly a fifth of all river water reaching the oceans.
Key facts
- Length
- approximately 6,400 km
- Basin area
- approximately 7 million km²
- Mean discharge
- approximately 209,000 m³/s
- Share of global river discharge to oceans
- approximately 20%
Why it matters
The Amazon discharges more water than the next seven largest rivers combined. Its freshwater plume is detectable in the Atlantic hundreds of kilometres offshore. The basin also demonstrates that abundance is not the same as availability: the water is overwhelmingly in places with few people.
Relationships
- Located in: Brazil
Related intelligence
Sources
- World Wildlife Fund / McGill University — HydroSHEDS / HydroRIVERS / HydroLAKES / HydroBASINS. Open — attribution required · CC BY 4.0
- Global Water System Project — Global Reservoir and Dam Database. Open — attribution required · CC BY 4.0
- Peer-reviewed scientific literature — Open-access hydrology, water chemistry and water use research. Public but restricted · Publisher terms — public access, reuse not clearly granted