{"id":8248,"date":"2023-07-06T08:30:00","date_gmt":"2023-07-06T07:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/neuronicdev.es\/deep-sea-world\/conservation\/20-amazing-facts-about-the-amazon-river\/"},"modified":"2025-09-23T09:56:24","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T09:56:24","slug":"20-amazing-facts-about-the-amazon-river","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/neuronicdev.es\/deep-sea-world\/blog\/20-amazing-facts-about-the-amazon-river\/","title":{"rendered":"20 Amazing Facts About the Amazon River"},"content":{"rendered":"

The mighty Amazon River defines South America, twisting and turning its way through a host of countries, and supporting an incredible wildlife array. The name conjures up thoughts of mystique, danger, and power, but the hugely popular boat tours up and down the river also showcase the incredible beauty of the waterway.<\/p>\n

So, to celebrate the Amazon River which contributes 20% of the world\u2019s freshwater into oceans (there\u2019s a bonus fact, straight off the bat), we\u2019ve compiled 20 amazing facts about the waterway.<\/p>\n

1 \u2013 It\u2019s the largest river in the world. That\u2019s in terms of water volume, despite it not being the longest (that title belongs to the Nile). The Amazon River pumps 200,000 litres of fresh water into the ocean every single second!<\/p>\n

2 \u2013 It\u2019s still pretty long though. Most scientists agree it\u2019s roughly 4,000 miles.<\/p>\n

3 \u2013 It starts in the Andean Mountains. Although there are some disputes about the Amazon River\u2019s actual start point, there\u2019s no doubt it starts in Peru\u2019s Andes Mountain. But, there\u2019s a long way for it to go, because\u2026<\/p>\n

4 \u2013 The Amazon River and its tributaries travel through ten different countries. After Peru, the river heads through and along Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, Brazil, and Bolivia. That\u2019s quite the journey.<\/p>\n

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5 \u2013 Amazingly, the river used to flow in the opposite direction. In an amazing testament to nature finding its way, the river\u2019s former flow was interrupted by the emergence of the Andean Mountains 15 million years ago. The river had a little think, and found a different route, emptying out into the Atlantic.<\/p>\n

6- It has pink dolphins! One of only four species of river dolphins in the world, the Amazon River Dolphin has been enjoying the South American freshwater for 18 million years!<\/p>\n

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7 \u2013 There are also piranhas though. Native to South America, and commonly found in the Amazon Basin, this is one of the few places you\u2019ll find the little swimming munchers in the world.<\/p>\n

8 \u2013 Fear not though, South American Piranhas are not as dangerous and deadly as Hollywood would have you believe. They are opportunistic feeders and natural scavengers whose diet mainly consists of fins ripped from the tails of laser fish so they\u2019re not likely to come and strip a dangling foot to the bone \u2013 despite what you might have seen on a cartoon!<\/p>\n

9 \u2013 And, that\u2019s not all. It\u2019s thought that as much as 30% of the different flora and fauna species on Earth can be found in and around the Amazon River. Macaws, spiders, snakes, sloths and about 400 amphibians all call the Amazon home.<\/p>\n

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10 \u2013 It can be very quiet. There are few permanent settlements on the banks of the Amazon River, so a tour down the river can mean you won\u2019t see another person for hours at a time!<\/p>\n

11 \u2013 There are no permanent bridges. Absolutely mind-blowing to think that to get across, you\u2019ll need a boat. Wow.<\/p>\n

12 \u2013 There\u2019s a second Amazon River underneath the one we all know and love. The Hamza River is a few miles underground and follows the Amazon\u2019s path.<\/p>\n

13 \u2013 It\u2019s named after a mythical gang of Greek warrior women. The Amazons were known for touring and plundering the Black Sea. The first European explorer, Francisco de Orellana, to chance upon the river, decided this was a fitting name, and so the Amazon River was born.<\/p>\n

14 \u2013 However it used to be known as the Mara\u00f1\u00f3n River, and the Peruvian stretch still goes by this name!<\/p>\n

15 \u2013 The world\u2019s greatest distance swimmer, Martin Strel, is the only man to swim the length of the Amazon River.<\/p>\n

16 \u2013 A massive coral reef was found in the Amazon Delta in 2016. Although the system was thought to have existed as early as the mid-1900s, it wasn\u2019t until recently that definitive proof was found!<\/p>\n

17 \u2013 A lot of the Amazon River\u2019s water ends up around the Caribbean Islands. The Caribbean Current around the Amazon\u2019s basin shifts tonnes of the water up to the Caribbean Islands, and is thought to raise the sea level by as much as 3cm!<\/p>\n

18 \u2013 There are hundreds of indigenous tribes who live around the Amazon River. It\u2019s thought that some have never had contact with the outside world, and there could be others yet to be discovered!<\/p>\n

19 \u2013 Desert sand from the Sahara blows all the way from Africa to the Amazon River, providing some of the essential minerals the ecosystem needs!<\/p>\n

20 \u2013 The whole ecosystem of the river is incredibly important to the environment. The plant life supported by the river draws huge quantities of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, and pumps out oxygen. In short, protect the Amazon River at all costs!<\/p>\n

So, there you have it, 20 amazing facts about the Amazon River. Not sure you can get the time off work or school to head over to South America anytime soon? We\u2019ve got the next best thing at Deep Sea World, our brand-new <\/strong>Amazon River exhibit<\/strong>! Come and <\/strong>see it for yourself.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To celebrate the Amazon River, which contributes 20% of the world\u2019s freshwater into oceans, we\u2019ve compiled 20 amazing facts about the waterway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4272145301,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-conservation"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/neuronicdev.es\/deep-sea-world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/neuronicdev.es\/deep-sea-world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/neuronicdev.es\/deep-sea-world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neuronicdev.es\/deep-sea-world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neuronicdev.es\/deep-sea-world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8248"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/neuronicdev.es\/deep-sea-world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8248\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4272145685,"href":"https:\/\/neuronicdev.es\/deep-sea-world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8248\/revisions\/4272145685"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neuronicdev.es\/deep-sea-world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4272145301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/neuronicdev.es\/deep-sea-world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neuronicdev.es\/deep-sea-world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neuronicdev.es\/deep-sea-world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}