Caitlin at Geo Lounge reports that a group of scientists have determined that the Amazon River might just be the longest river in the world, taking that title from the Nile River! The team reported that they place the source of the Amazon in southern Peru.
Top Related Searches amazon river
Explore Geography
Comments
Matt- do you think this story is true about the Amazon being longer than the Nile?
Amazon also the river with the most water? List(s) of the 10 or 12 “Biggest” and “Most Famed” rivers would be of Interest. Mississippi, Missouri, Congo, Ganges, Danube, Themes, Nile, Kwai, Yangtze, even the Yellow of China and the Reds of North America: North (to Hudson Bay and South to the Rio Grande, not to forget the Colorado! Rivers fix people, rivers transfix people. Thanks, Matt, for this topic!
How could I have forgotten the Rhine? I’m sure other readers will and should suggest more rivers. The Ohio, where young Abraham Lincoln operated a ferry boat? The Shenandoah and the Swanee? Thank you, Matt, for the opportunity to add this to my earlier comment.
That’s all there is to the story? Who are these people and why should we believe them.
Perhaps, sometimes we get caught up too much in debating what river is the longest or the biggest. Of course, such debate is related to regional, national and even continental pride.
I recall learning far more in grade school about the Mississippi/Missouri system than the 95 mile-long river that coursed its way just a mile from the school in northern Ohio. But it was that local river that had a greater influence on the development of the communities in my watershed.
Local tributaries have played major roles in the development of cultures. They also reflect the environmental health of areas encompassed by their respective watersheds. While the health of big rivers may command our attention, it’s the accumulated pollution of smaller tributaries that usually dictate the health of the big river, lakes or even our coastlines.
What I’m trying to say is that we should also focus on the tributaries that mean so much to so many millions of people across the globe, yet are ignored in favor of the debate on the biggest of the big.
Nile is longer.