# Wanted: a reference text on world's greatest rivers **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 31, 2004, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanted-a-reference-text-on-worlds-greatest-rivers/272100 "2004-10-31T01:53:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2004, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanted-a-reference-text-on-worlds-greatest-rivers/272100/1 "2004-10-31T01:53:18Z")
In particular, one that at least in part defines “greatest” in terms of how much water is moving through them (flow rate), as opposed to longest or most relevant to human history etc. It’s a gift-request from my Dad, who seems to delight in asking for highly specific things that may or may not exist. This time around I’m sure plenty of them do, but it’s less than compellingly obvious how I’d search for them. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2004, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanted-a-reference-text-on-worlds-greatest-rivers/272100/2 "2004-10-31T02:22:22Z")
Well, this is intriguing! The key words you would want are “volume” and/or “flow rate” combined with “river” and some superlative to get the record-holders. Clearly the [Amazon](http://www.greatestplaces.org/notes/amazon.htm) is the year-round record-holder among all rivers, but it appears that, with the possible exception of an Encyclopedia Brittanica article from which one only gets a teaser without a subscription, a listing of what rivers are its nearest rivals is not available in one place online, at least to my moderate Googling skills. Excerpt from the Amazon article: > [@](#): > > Cycles of Flow: The Amazon River pulsates once a year. From November through May. the volume of the mainstream swells. For example, on June 1, 1989, the level of the river at Manaus, 900 miles from the ocean, had been 45 feet above low water, nearly reaching the 1953 all-time high-water mark on the flood gauge. The Amazon’s volume in that month far exceeded the combined flow of the next eight largest rivers on Earth, as it does by the end of every May, even in years of normal flow. > > During the second half of the year, the flow diminishes. By way of another example, in November 1990, around Manaus, stretches of white beaches and sandbars were exposed to the sun for the first time in living memory. The river had fallen 50 feet to its lowest level on record in this century. > > The only official fluviometric studies of the main stream flow were done in 1963 and 1964 (years estimated of lesser than average rainfall) by the U.S. Geological Survey. Measurements were made at Obidos, 600 miles inland, where the Amazon squeezes through a single channel little more than a mile wide. Findings gave the average minimum discharge at 3 million cubic feet per second while the average maximum reached 8.5 million. For comparison, the Mississippi at Vicksburg averages 620,000 cubic feet per second. It has been suggested that the Amazon’s average annual discharge equals 20 percent of the total continental runoff of all rivers on Earth. ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2004, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanted-a-reference-text-on-worlds-greatest-rivers/272100/3 "2004-10-31T03:12:13Z")
You’re looking for a gift-type book on something like “Great Rivers of the World”? Putting “Great Rivers of the World” into [amazon.com](http://amazon.com) turns up a variety of selections with that title. Your public library probably has some of them on the shelves, you could go check 'em out and see if they were worth buying. And there are [these.](http://www.allbookstores.com/browse/NAT029000) All 974 of them. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2004, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanted-a-reference-text-on-worlds-greatest-rivers/272100/4 "2004-11-01T01:33:42Z")
BTW, some years ago, when South America and Africa were one landmass, the prehistoric Congo River flowed into the prehistoric Amazon, which emptied out somewhere on the coast of maybe modern day Peru? Anyway, that river system had the combined drainage of the Amazon (greatest discharge today) and the Congo (second greatest). I think it would have been rather impressive. ---
**Author:** ![mitchythekid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c67d28/32.png) [@mitchythekid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mitchythekid)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2004, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanted-a-reference-text-on-worlds-greatest-rivers/272100/5 "2004-11-01T01:48:19Z")
I would think the formula for volume(space)would work,height x depth x width x speed, or something like that,the actual formula is somewhere in my old math book.You could roughly guestimate with the info thats out there on any river. Good luck. 🙂