Amazon River History

The Amazon River in South America is the largest river by discharge of water in the world, averaging a discharge of about 209,000 cubic meters per second (7,381,000 cu ft/s), greater than the next seven largest independent rivers combined. It is also generally regarded as the second longest river in the world, has the largest drainage basin in the world, about 7,050,000 square kilometres (2,720,000 sq mi), and accounts for approximately one-fifth of the world's total river flow. The portion of the river's drainage basin in Brazil alone is larger than any other river's basin. The Amazon enters Brazil with only one-fifth of the flow it finally discharges into the Atlantic, yet already has a greater flow at this point than the discharge of any other river

The width of the Amazon is between 1.6 and 10 kilometres (1.0 and 6.2 mi) at low stage but expands during the wet season to 48 kilometres (30 mi) or more. The river enters the Atlantic Ocean in a broad estuary about 240 kilometres (150 mi) wide. The mouth of the main stem is 80 kilometres (50 mi). Because of its vast dimensions, it is sometimes called "The River Sea". Thefirst bridge in the Amazon river system (over the Rio Negro) opened on 24 October 2011 near Manaus, Brazil.

The total volume of water discharging from the Amazon river in a year is about 6,591 cubic kilometers (to compare, the water volume of Lake Baikal is 23,615 cubic km).