Welcome to the Amazon

This week, The Mini Page goes on a virtual adventure to the Amazon River Basin in South America. ¡Vamos!

A vast river

The Amazon River begins high in the Andes Mountains and flows about 4,000 miles across the continent. Only the Nile River in Africa is longer.

The Amazon River has more than 1,100 tributaries. (A tributary is a stream or river that feeds a larger river or lake.) Seventeen of these are more than 900 miles long. The Amazon carries one-fifth of all the river water flowing into the oceans of the Earth. The mouth of the river is 200 miles wide where it enters into the Atlantic Ocean.

What is a basin?

We use basins, or sinks and bowls, to hold things, especially water. Our planet Earth has basins, too.

A drainage basin collects rainwater, which drains into a common outlet, like a river.

The Amazon River Basin covers more than 2.4 million square miles. This river system flows in seven countries, including about half of Brazil, and covers land in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela.

People along the Amazon

Each year, for a six-month period, the banks along the Amazon flood. People, plants and animals in the area adjust to these changes. Waters rise from 20 feet to 50 feet

Mini Fact:

This image was taken from the Sentinel-1 satellite and colored to highlight the Amazon and tributaries.

image courtesy European Space Agency and flood an area as far as 50 miles from the river. Many houses are built on stilts, or designed to float on the river.

Most of the river basin is covered with rainforests, so this large area is home to a comparably small number of people, about 30 million. About 2.7 million of those are Indigenous people, or those whose ancestors first inhabited the area.

People living in the Amazon River Basin are farmers, growing soya beans, nuts, rice and corn. The river provides fish for food.

Who else lives there?

“Bio” means life, and “diversity” means variety. The biodiversity is probably greater in rainforest areas than anywhere else.

Hundreds of different species, including mammals, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and insects, thrive in the warm, damp climate.

Some of the creatures who live there include:

• Jaguars are the largest cats in the Western Hemisphere.

Emerald tree boa constrictors coil around prey and squeeze it to death.