Amazon's Staggering Water Discharge Outpaces World's Largest Rivers

The Amazon River is often considered one of the world's great rivers, but it dwarfs other notable rivers like the Mississippi. In fact, the Amazon discharges about 209,000 cubic meters of water per second into the Atlantic Ocean, which is roughly 12 times more than the Mississippi's discharge of around 16,800 cubic meters per second.

This staggering difference in water volume makes the Amazon a standout among other rivers. Not only does it carry more water than the next seven largest rivers combined, but it also provides about 15 to 20 percent of all the freshwater that rivers deliver to the oceans worldwide.

The Amazon's enormous size can be attributed to its massive drainage area, which covers around 7 million square kilometers of lush tropical rainforest. This vast region receives over 2,500 millimeters of rainfall annually, resulting in a significant amount of runoff into the river. In contrast, the Mississippi basin is roughly half the size and drains a drier, more temperate region.

As a result, the Amazon's discharge is so massive that it can provide fresh water for an entire city like New York for over nine years. Its mouth spans approximately 200 miles across, with the island of Marajó nestled within, which is roughly the size of Switzerland. The river's flow is so strong that it dilutes the ocean's saltwater for more than 100 miles offshore.