The Amazon River and its thousand tributaries make up the largest and most powerful hydrographic basin on the planet. Thanks to this enormous extension of waters, wetlands and marshy areas, the Amazon jungle, called the lung of the world, could develop for millions of years. This wonderful system is rich in biodiversity, with millions of lives of all possible shapes, sizes, colors and locomotions. The Amazon system is an authentic cloud factory that not only irrigates the jungle itself but the entire Andean mountain range, the Argentine pampas and many remote areas, thanks to the extensive vegetation and the strength and speed of the winds.
Amazon River Facts
It is the longest and largest river in the world
It is seven thousand kilometers long
Its width is between 1.6 and 10 km
In rainy seasons up to 48 km +
It has between 15 to 20% of the world's fresh water
The Amazon Delta is 240 km wide
More than 1000 rivers converge in the Amazon
25 of them exceed 1000 km in length
For the most part the slope is extremely low
Between Iquitos and the delta (3646 km) it hardly descends 10.6 cm. Due to this, in this extensive section the river is very slow and abundant in curvatures.
Drought, the great challenge of the Amazon
NASA has revealed a widespread reduction in the greenery of the Amazon forests that exceeds 1.5 million square kilometers.
Desertification and drying of the tributaries of the Amazon River go hand in hand. They represent one of the greatest challenges that humanity will have to face from now on. Desertification, water scarcity, the disappearance of moisture from the forest and its surroundings, the loss of crops and the consequent famines are as important and dangerous subjects as the melting of glaciers and the rise in the level of the seas.
Causes and consequences of drought in the Amazon
Tree felling to satisfy timber markets, soybean oil and palm oil crops, extensive agriculture, livestock, oil exploitation, oil pipelines, gas pipelines, road and road construction to new exploitation spaces, hydroelectric dams and urbanization. All this affects the Amazon and the water flow of its rivers decreases, affecting the ecosystems of the greatest biodiversity in the world, with incalculable consequences.
If the deforestation of the jungle does not stop, the global drought would be unstoppable and will knock on our doors before the thaw itself does. As climate change increases, El Niño events will be more frequent, so the Amazon Basin will lose its resilience between these events.
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