AMAZON   RIVER

MIGHTIEST OF RIVERS

Some authorities, believe that the river was named after the Amazons, women warriors of Greek mythology who were thought to reside in the region; other scholars insist that the name is derived from the indian word "amassona" (boat destroyer).

The Amazon River whose headwaters are in the Peruvian Andes, runs from S to NE and it is estimated that the river discharges between 34 and 121 millions liters of water per second and deposits a daily average of 3 million tons of sediment near its mouth. The annual outflow from the river accounts for one-fifth of all fresh water that drains into the oceans of the world. The outpouring of water and sediment is so monstrous that the salinity and color of the Atlantic Ocean are altered for a distance of about 320 Km from the mouth of the river.

Because of its vastness, annual floods, and navigability, the Amazon is often called the Ocean River . The total number of its tributaries is as yet uncounted, but more than 2000 are in Brazil alone. Twenty seven of the largest known tributaries are more than 1600 Km in lenght. Despite centuries of effort to overcome the dominance of nature, people have made little impact on the Amazon and most of its vast drainage vasin. No bridge spans the river .

Except near its mouth, the Amazon watershed constitutes one of the most thinly populated regions in the world. Much of the territory drained by the river system has never been thoroughly explored. One may fly for hours over the tropical forest that cover much of the river's floodplain and see no sign of human settlement. In many stream valleys, Indian tribes hostile to strangers continue to live much as they did before the arrival of the Europeans.

The Amazon Basin is home to more than 2 million insect species, 200,000 plants , 4000 species of fish (more than Atlantic and Pacific Oceans together) and more than 800 mammals, many of which are found nowhere else in the world.

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