The Amazon River carries more water than the next seven biggest rivers on Earth combined. About one-fifth of all the liquid water flowing through rivers worldwide is pouring through the Amazon at any moment.
It drains an area the size of Australia, gathering rain from 1,000 different tributaries before reaching the Atlantic. Where it meets the ocean, the river is so massive that fresh water keeps flowing out to sea for over 160 kilometres before the salty Atlantic finally mixes it back.
Strangely, the Amazon doesn’t have a single bridge crossing its main channel. The river is too wide, the banks too soft, and most people who need to cross use boats. The forest around it stores more carbon than any other on the planet.
