Take that Nile! Amazon declared longest river in the world

[Che Guava]

Amazon river 'longer than Nile'

Researchers in Brazil are claiming to have established as a scientific fact that the Amazon is the longest river in the world.

The Amazon is recognised as the world's largest river by volume, but has generally been regarded as second in length to the River Nile in Egypt.

The claim follows an expedition to Peru that is said to have established a new starting point further south.

It puts the Amazon at 6,800km (4,250 miles) compared to the Nile's 6,695km.

Mountain source

The precise length of a river is not easy to calculate and depends on correctly identifying the source and the mouth.

The new claim in Brazil follows an expedition by scientists which is said to have discovered a new source for the Amazon in the south of Peru and not the north of the country as had been thought for many years.

While the exact location has yet to be confirmed from two choices, scientists say either would make the river the longest in the world.

Guido Gelli, director of science at the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, told the Brazilian network TV Globo that today it could already be considered as a fact that the Amazon was the longest river in the world.

The Amazon is now said to begin in an ice-covered mountain in southern Peru called Mismi.

Researchers travelled for 14 days, sometimes in freezing temperatures, to establish the location at an altitude of 5,000m.

The research was co-ordinated by the National Geographical Institute of Peru, with the help of their colleagues in Brazil.

There has been a healthy academic debate over the world's longest river for some years and the claim from Brazil may not go unchallenged.

Old man Linker....

One point for the americas! Now we just have to convince the world that the Andes are higher than the Himalayas

 

[Rossiya]

1-0 Brazil!

 

[Atlas14]

I've been waiting for this day to come. Wow, what incredible news! Seriously, the Amazon is a hundred times cooler than the Nile, except for the hippos and crocs, maybe Brazil coul import some of those.

 

[GenMarshall]

I've been waiting for this day to come. Wow, what incredible news! Seriously, the Amazon is a hundred times cooler than the Nile, except for the hippos and crocs, maybe Brazil coul import some of those.

Well, the Amazon river has thoes nasty parana fishes .

 

[Che Guava]

[...] except for the hippos and crocs, maybe Brazil coul import some of those.

Jeez, you WANT hippos and crocs?!! Haven't you ever read heart of darkness or seen the crocodile hunter?

 

[pacesplace]

If they had had hippos and crocs there a century ago, maybe Teddy could've brought back their heads and mounted them in the Oval Office. Doesn't the President seem more threatening with a lifelike crocodile with its jaws wide open next to him? I'd be so scared I'd move to Crawford just so I could get on his good side.

 

[azzaman333]

The Nile is longer in my mind, and will remain that way until I get bored and change my mind.

 

[AL_DA_GREAT]

I wonder how it starts. I would like to look at that point, is there just water pouring out of the ground. Is there some lake there?

 

[Volum]

I doubt Egypt will let this go unnchalenged tough...

How long before some Egyptian scientist discovers that the Nile starts somewhere around Cape Town?

 

[Mr. Dictator]

I doubt Egypt will let this go unnchalenged tough...

How long before some Egyptian scientist discovers that the Nile starts somewhere around Cape Town?

egypt would just be in denial if they even tried.

 

[Stormrage]

Finaly! I got an F in Geography cos I argued with that old bat about this!

 

[Urederra]

First Pluto and now this.

 

[Volum]

egypt would just be in denial if they even tried.

Egypt and Brazil have been in a "longest river" war for quite some time.

Dont be surprised if Egypt launches a spec. ops team to dam upp the Amazon

 

[Perfection]

How exactly do they determine what a river's source is?

 

[warpus]

First Pluto and now this.

Pluto is a river?

 

[Fugitive Sisyphus]

The official lengths of the rivers also depend on how the rivers are measured. You can't physically take a tape-measure over every inch of the Nile and definitely not the Amazon. I imagine that measuring rivers is like measuring coast lines. You get drastically different values depending on the method used.

 

[bob bobato]

How could any of this possibly matter? The money those researchers used could have been used for so many other things.

 

[Aegis]

egypt would just be in da Nile if they even tried.

Fixed.

 

[luiz]

I was taught in school that the Amazon was the longest river in the world, 15 years ago. Talk about nationalism in education
Anyway what makes the Amazon so awesome is not its lenght, but rather it's volume. There are points in the river where you cannot see the other side, it's like an ocean. It probably has more water in it than most countries in the world.

BTW, while there are no crocodiles in the Amazon, there are alligators.

 

[bhsup]

First Pluto and now this.

Man, I'm glad I'm not the only one feeling this way. Why can't these blasted eggheads leave things we learned in school well enough alone. Dag nabbit, the Nile is the longest and that's that.