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To keep our rivers clean...
1. Don't throw you garbage in the water
2. Don't dump any hazardous materials into the water
3. Recycle
Where does all that water go?
All of the water that is discharged into the Atlantic Ocean is actually only about 1/3rd of the water
that falls into the Amazon basin as rain. Where does the other 2/3rds go? Up to half of the rainfall in some areas may never
reach the ground, being intercepted by the forest and re-evaporated into the atmosphere. Additional evaporation occurs from
ground and river surfaces, or is released into the atmosphere by evapo-transpiration from plant leaves. All of this evaporated
moisture re-enters the water cycling system of the Amazon, and a given molecule of water may be "re-cycled" many times between
the time that it is evaporated from the surface of the Atlantic Ocean and carried by the prevailing westerly winds into the
Amazon basin, to the time that it is carried back to the ocean by the Amazon River.
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This is the Amazon River
The Amazon River is located in Brazil
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About the Amazon
Average rainfall across the whole Amazon basin is approximately
2300 mm (or 7.5 feet) annually. In some areas of the northwest portion of the Amazon basin, yearly rainfall can exceed 6000
mm (19.7 feet)!
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DID YOU KNOW?
The Amazon basin is home to over 2,400 known species of fish, more species than are found in the
entire Atlantic Ocean! Some scientists estimate that there may be as many as 5,000 species! These range from giant air-breathing
fish (Arapaima gigas) and river catfish weighing up to 600-700 lbs, to tiny tetras, electric eels, sting-rays, needlefish,
fresh-water flying-fish, and knife-fish. The fish fauna of many river systems is poorly known, and new species are discovered
yearly, even in the "better-known" areas!
AND...
The mouth of the Amazon is over 320 km wide (approximately 200 miles), and contains the worlds largest
freshwater island, Marajó Island, with an area of 48,000 km2.
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