The largest river basin. The largest river basins in the world (photo). Source of the Nile River

A river basin is a land area into which underground groundwater and various reservoirs flow. All of them enter the system of a certain river, but the regimes of the surface and underground catchment areas do not coincide. Since it is difficult to trace the sources of groundwater, it is the tributaries of the river that form the basis of the basin.

Water exchange between the main river, lakes and small rivers occurs regularly, which ensures the regime of the river basin. Between neighboring reservoirs there is a border along the line of watersheds.

Types of river basins

Scientists distinguish two types of river basins - runoff and endorheic. Endorheic basins include the waters of rivers and lakes, which are not connected to the oceans through the main river. They vary in location, shape and size. Accordingly, waste areas are those that, as a result, have access to the ocean.

All river basins are characterized by length main river and by the area of ​​the river catchment, the volume of water runoff and the stability of the riverbed, sources of food and hydro-regime conditions. According to the length of the river are divided into large, medium and small. The rivers are fed by rainwater, snow, glacial, underground, and the waters of streams, lakes and small rivers are also important. Most often, river basins have a mixed supply when there are several sources of water.

The largest river basins in the world

It is believed that every river has a pool, regardless of whether it flows into another river, sea or ocean. The largest basins of the following rivers:

• Amazon;
• Congo;
• Mississippi;
• Parana;
• Yenisei;
• Lena;
• Niger;
• Amur.

Depending on the area of ​​river basins, they have, first of all, a huge economic importance. Rivers are the main source fresh water. Their waters are used to irrigate fields, irrigation systems are created, applied water resources and in industry (metallurgy, energy, chemical industry). River basins play an important role in fishing. One of the functions of rivers is recreational.

Thus, the main river, together with tributaries and groundwater sources, forms a river basin. The more reservoirs flow into the river, the more abundant the pool becomes. Since water resources are of paramount importance for people's lives, they are actively used in various sectors of the economy and everyday life. This leads to the depletion of some water bodies, but in order to avoid this, it is necessary to rationally use the waters of the planet's river basins.

The seventh wonder of the world is the Amazon River and its younger beautiful sisters.

Niger- This is the most valuable river in West Africa, the length of which is 4180 kilometers. The source of the river is on the slope of the Leono-Liberian Upland. The Niger flows into the Gulf of the Atlantic Ocean. Thus, the possession of the delta is formed.

Irtysh is located in the Xinjiang Uygur region of China. (What do you think?))) The length of the reservoir reaches 4248 kilometers. The Ob together with the Irtysh create the longest watercourse in Russia. It ranks second in the overall ranking in terms of length in Asia. The basin area is 1643 thousand square kilometers. The river is rich in freshwater fish.

Length Lena is 4400 kilometers. and the area is 2490 thousand square kilometers. Thus, Lena is the most long river in the territory of Central Siberia. A large area of ​​the reservoir passes through the Irkutsk region. It is worth noting that according to total area Lena is considered the largest in Russia. At the same time, there are no analogues of Lena in terms of location in permafrost regions in the world. Winter fishing enthusiasts come here from all over the world.

Mekong In wide circles, the reservoir is known as the “River of the Nine Dragons”. It flows through the territory of China, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanye On the Indochina peninsula, the Mekong is the most big river, the length of which is 4500 kilometers

River Congo located in Central Africa, - also the deepest, the length of which is 4700 kilometers. This is a unique river that crosses the equator twice.

Parana. This is a long river located in South America. Its length is 4880 kilometers. It flows through several states, including Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. The area of ​​the Parana River is 2,582,672 square kilometers.

Interesting Facts.

• The Parana flows into the Gulf of La Plata;
• shipping is well developed in the lower reaches of one of the longest rivers on the planet;
• in the middle reaches of the Parana there is a border between Argentina and Paraguay;
• the name is translated "big river" from the language of the ancient Guarani Indians.

Huanghe. Finding a fresh water reservoir larger than the Yellow River is quite difficult. One of largest rivers China and Asia as a whole in translation means "yellow", which is associated with the presence a large number sediment. They give it a traditional and extraordinary yellowish tint. Not many people know that it was because of this river, which flows into the yellow sea, that the second body of water got its name. The source of the Yellow River is located in the eastern part of Tibet, at an altitude of about 4 thousand meters. The total area is 745 thousand km².

In translation Yangtzemeans "long river". A really large river located in China is distinguished by its long length (6300 km), covering the territory of many countries of Eurasia. One of the largest rivers on the planet is considered the third on Earth in terms of full flow. Its area is 1,808,500 square kilometers.

Interesting.

• The Yangtze covers many ecosystems, while it is home to unique endemic and rare, endangered species of marine animals. In particular - river dolphins.

The ex-leader in the top of the longest rivers today is Nile, whose length is 6853 kilometers. The source of the fresh water reservoir originates in the East African Plateau. For the most part, the Nile flows in the desert

And finally - the longest river in the world - the Amazon, the length of which is 6992 kilometers. The area covers 7180 thousand square kilometers. In 2011, a worldwide competition was held, in which the river received the status of one of the seven wonders of the world. For the most part, it flows in the Amazonian lowland, namely in the sublatitudinal zone. Forms a huge delta and flows into Atlantic Ocean. The area of ​​the largest river island is 100 kilometers.

The shortest rivers

The shortest in the world are two American rivers: Roe River near the town of Great Falls, pc. Montana, and the D River in Lincoln City, pc. Oregon. The Roe River flows into the Missouri River; one of its branches is only 17.7 m long. The Dee River connects Devils Lake to the Pacific Ocean, and its total length is 37 + 1.5 m.

Roe River.

The longest rivers

The two longest rivers in the world are the Nile in Africa and the Amazon in South America.

River Nile as seen from space.

The Amazon originates in Peru, where several streams, merging, turn into the Apurimac River, which, in turn, passes into the Eni, Tambo and Ucayali rivers. On the last stretch of 3700 km - from the confluence of Ucayali and Marañon up to the mouth - the river is called the Amazon. The Amazon has several mouths, so it is not entirely clear where it ends. If you measure the river, moving to the most remote mouth, then the length of the Amazon will be about 6750 km.

Amazon River as seen from space.

Nile stretching from Burundi to mediterranean sea, had a length of 6670 km until Lake Nasser, formed after the construction of the Aswan Dam, swallowed up several meanders, i.e. bends of the river channel, reducing its length by several kilometers.

underwater river

In 1952 was opened underwater river, called the Cromwell current. It carries its waters east along the equator below the surface Pacific Ocean at a depth reaching up to 400 m in some places. The unusual river has a width of 300 km and a length of 6500 km.

underground river

In August 1958, a river flowing under the Nile was discovered using radioisotopes. Its average annual water consumption is 6 times greater than that of the Nile - 500 km 2.

Amazon River as seen from space.

The largest river basin

The largest basin in the world is near the Amazon River - it occupies 7,045,000 km 2.

Most long tributary rivers

One of the tributaries of the Amazon - Madeira (3380 km). Only 17 rivers in the world surpass it in length.

River Ob

The longest estuary near the river

The longest estuary near the Ob River in northern Russia is 885 km long and up to 80 km wide. The Ob is also the widest river, which, when frozen, is completely covered with ice.

Brahmaputra river

largest river delta

The largest delta in the world is at the Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers in Bangladesh and West Bengal, India. It covers an area of ​​75,000 km2.

The largest flow of the river

Every second, the Amazon discharges 200,000 m3 of water into the Atlantic Ocean, and during the flood period more than 340,000 m3

The most powerful drill inriver

Of all the 60 places in the world where this phenomenon is observed, the most amazing bora (a sharp rise in the water level in the river during high tide) can be observed on the Hanchufe River in eastern China. During spring tides, the wave moves up the river at a speed of 24 - 27 km / h, and its approach is heard from a distance of 22 km.

Congo - reka-record holder

The Congo is the only major river that crosses the equator twice. It is the most full-flowing and the second longest river in Africa, the second river in terms of water content in the world after the Amazon.

Congo is the most deep river in the world, in some of its sections the depth is more than 230 meters, which is an absolute record on the planet. Basically, such places are located in areas of large waterfalls, such as Livingston Falls (when the water falls from a height of 270 meters).

longest island river

The Kapuas River flows on the island of Borneo and is the longest river in Indonesia, with a length of 1143 km.

The dirtiest river

The Citarum River is in Indonesia. The river is an economically important waterway for the area and is heavily polluted by human activity. About 5 million people live in the river basin.

The highest river

The Brahmaputra River originates from the Tibetan Plateau (PRC) at an altitude of more than 3500 m. The river has several names, depending on the area where it flows: in Tibet - Matsang and Yarlung Tsangpo, at the point of a breakthrough through the Himalayas - Xiang and Dihang, in India - Brahmaputra, Bangladesh - Jamuna.

The widest river in the world

La Plata is an estuary formed at the confluence of the Uruguay and Paraná rivers in South America. At the confluence of the rivers, the width of La Plata is 48 km, the river flows to the southeast, expanding to 220 km when it flows into the Atlantic Ocean.

Drainage basin, or catchment - part earth's surface, including the thickness of the soil from which the river or river network receives water supply. The catchment area genetically determines the quantity and quality of runoff, thereby laying down the main parameters of natural water resources.

Each river basin has surface and underground watersheds. A surface catchment is a section of the earth's surface from which water flows into a river network. An underground catchment area is a part of the soil stratum, from which water enters the river network underground. The surface catchment may not coincide with the underground.

A river that flows directly into the sea or into an endorheic lake is called the main one; the rivers flowing into the main one are tributaries of the first order, then there are tributaries of the second order, the third, etc. The totality of the main river with all tributaries forms a river system. The ratio of the total length of all rivers in the basin (or other territory) to the area characterizes the density of the river network.

On the territory of Russia, 8 of the 50 largest world river basins are located in whole or in part: the basins of the Ob, Yenisei, Lena, Amur, Volga, Dnieper, Don, and Ural rivers.
The Ob River has the largest area of ​​the basin - 2990 thousand km2; the length of the river is 3650 km (from the source of the Katun River - 4338 km, from the source of the Irtysh River - 5410 km).

In the basin of the Yenisei River (the area of ​​​​the basin is 2580 thousand km2, the length of the river is 3487 km; the length from the sources of the Small Yenisei River is 4102 km) there is a unique one, which, together with adjacent territories, including protected areas, belongs to the World Natural Heritage sites.
The area of ​​the Lena River basin is 2490 thousand km2. The river, 4400 km long, originates on the slopes of the Baikal Range, flows into, forming a large (about 30 thousand km2) delta.

Most of the Amur River basin is located in Russia. The Amur is one of the largest rivers in the Far East region (length 2824 km; from the source of the Argun River - 4440 km; basin area 1855 km2). A serious problem of the river is the intensive development of the right bank of the river by the PRC, in connection with which last decade the pressure on the ecosystems of the basin has sharply increased. Wasteful use natural resources, with a significant difference between Chinese environmental standards and Russian standards, leads to a change in the natural resource potential, in particular, to a deterioration in the condition of valuable species of commercial fish, disruption of the seasonal migration routes of ungulates and protected species waterfowl, to a change in the fairway of the river as a result of uncontrolled excavation in water protection zone, pollution with harmful substances.
Square drainage basin the Volga River - the largest in Europe - is 1360 thousand km2, that is, 62.2% of the European part of Russia, 8% of the area of ​​Russia, almost 13% of the territory of Europe. 2600 rivers flow directly into the Volga (length 3530 km), and in total there are more than 150 thousand watercourses in the basin with a length of more than 10 km. Its largest tributaries are the Oka and Kama rivers. The catchment area of ​​small rivers is 45% of the total area of ​​the basin.