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Brazil
Factfile |
 Brazil |
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The Amazon |
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The Amazon in South America is the second-longest river in the world and runs east from the Andes Mountains, through Brazil to the Atlantic Ocean. It flows through the world’s largest rainforest, which is home to many exotic plants and animals. Even today, scientists have no idea how many different animals and plants live in the Amazon rainforest, as new species are constantly being discovered as the scientific exploration of the Amazon rainforest is only about 200 years old.
Amazon River view
At its widest point the Amazon can be 11km wide during the dry season. The area covered by the Amazon River and its tributaries more than triples over the course of a year. In an average dry season 110,000 sq km of land are water-covered, while in the wet season the flooded area of the Amazon Basin rises to 350,000 sq km. When the flood plains and the Amazon River Basin flood during the rainy season, the Amazon River can be up to 40km wide.
So how does the Amazon River get to be so big? The first reason has to do with its location – at the equator. Here lies a warm tropical zone where over 1016cm of rain fall every year – that’s more than an average of 3cm of rain, everyday! A lot of rain falls onto the land surrounding the river, what is called the Amazon River drainage basin. The easy way to understand what a drainage basin is: imagine the whole northern half of the continent of South America as a shallow dish. Whenever rain falls and lands anywhere in the river basin, it all runs into the lowest place, which happens to be the Amazon River.
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