The longest rivers: TOP 3 of the longest rivers in the world
To determine the length of the river, it is necessary to perform a very complex and painstaking procedure. To date, the longest rivers are the Amazon, the Nile, and the Ob-Irtysh. Why the longest rivers are three, what are their features and other interesting information - you will learn further.
Contents:
The process of measuring the length of the
To begin with it is worth noting that the process of measuring the length of the river is very difficult and quite interesting.
The most difficult process is to determine the beginning and end of the river. The beginning of the river is considered the most remote distance to the source among all the tributaries from the mouth, to establish it, as you know, is quite problematic, since it is necessary to study all the tributaries and their length. In addition, seasonal changes also complicate the process of finding the beginning of the river. Finding the beginning and end of the river is also, in some cases, quite difficult due to the narrowing and unevenness of the rivers, in some places large ships do not pass, so you have to make foot measurements. And the measurement process itself is quite complicated, sometimes even satellite images are used for this.
List of the longest rivers
Because the lengths of the first three along the length of the rivers are very close to each other, we will consider them all.
1st place
The longest river is the Amazon, its length is 6,992 km.
The source of the river is the confluence of rivers: Marañon and Ucayali. The Amazon is filled with many tributaries, where approximately 20 of them have a length exceeding 1.5 km. The Amazon flows through 7 countries: Brazil, Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela and Guyana. For the most part, the river is in Brazil. The basin of the river is the Atlantic Ocean. The average water discharge in the lower reaches of the river is about 220 thousand m3 / s.
2nd place
The second longest river is the Nile, which is 6,852 km long.
The source of the Nile is Lake Victoria. Large tributaries in the upper reaches: Bahr al-Ghazal and Achva, Sobat, Blue Nile and Atbar. The river flows through 11 countries: Burundi, Egypt, Kenya, Congo, Rwanda, Sudan, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Eritrea and Ethiopia. Most of all, Nile is in Sudan. The basin of the river is the Mediterranean Sea. The water flow is about 5.1 thousand m3 / s.
3rd place
Our Ob-Irtysh, the length of which is 6 898( 6 598) km, closes the three of the longest rivers.
It should be noted initially that the Irtysh is the main tributary of the Ob. The source of Obi-Irtysh is the confluence of rivers: Jalgizagat-He and Ul-Turgen-He, which is located in China. The river flows through 4 countries: Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan and China. For the most part, the river is in Russia. The basin of the river is Obskaya Guba. The water flow rate is 12.8 thousand m3 / s.
If you look closely at the numbers, the Ob-Irtysh should be on the second place of this list, but due to some disputes about its length and because it consists of two rivers, it is given only the third place.