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The World's Most Important Rivers

1. Amazon (1/15)

Length: 6,400 kilometers (3,980 miles)
Water Discharge: 219,000,000 liters/second

The Amazon is by far the strongest river in the world. It drains an area equivalent in size to the United States. The Amazon's daily freshwater discharge into the Atlantic is enough to supply New York City's freshwater needs for nine years. The silt deposited at the mouth of the Amazon, forms a river island the size of Switzerland.

Image:
The Amazon River meandering through rainforests in Brazil. (Photo: Reuters)

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The World's Most Important Rivers

1. Amazon (2/15)

Length: 6,400 km (3,980 miles)
Water Discharge: 219,000,000 l/s

The Amazon River transports such an enormous amount of water that once a year, when the river floods the huge Amazon basin, a sizeable portion of South America sinks several inches because of the weight of the water.

Image:
There are rivers that do not carry a large amount of sediment, but a large amount of dark organic matter. These rivers are true "black water" rivers. The most famous of these black rivers, the Rio Negro, can be seen on this satellite image, as it joins the grey, sediment-laden Rio Solimoes to form the Amazon. (Image: NASA)

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The World's Most Important Rivers

2. Congo (3/15)

Length: 4,700 km (2,922 miles)
Water Discharge: 41,800,000 l/s

The Congo River transports more water per second than any other river on Earth except the Amazon.

Image:
The semi-functional Inga Dam on the Congo River. Experts say the river could generate over 40,000 megawatts of electricity - more than twice the projected capacity of China 's massive Three Gorges Dam, currently the world's biggest hydro power plant. (Picture: Reuters)

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The World's Most Important Rivers

2. Congo (4/15)

Length: 4,700 km (2,922 miles)
Water Discharge: 41,800,000 l/s

The Congo drains from both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres and thus is always in the zone of rain and does not have great seasonal fluctuations.

Image:
The satellite image shows the Atlantic Ocean between Africa and South America and the degree of photosynthetic productivity. While the Congo River is not visible itself, its impact on the Atlantic is evident. Sediments from the river even trigger algae growth in the open sea. (Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, The SeaWiFS Project)

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The World's Most Important Rivers

3. Nile (5/15)

Length: 6,650 km (4,135 miles)
Water Discharge: 5,100,000 l/s

The Nile is known as the longest river on Earth, though some say this title actually belongs to the Amazon.

Image: This satellite image sets the lush green vegetation along the banks of the Nile in contrast to the Sahara desert that surrounds it. (Photo: NASA, Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Land Science Team)

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The World's Most Important Rivers

3. Nile (6/15)

Length: 6,650 km (4,135 miles)
Water Discharge: 5,100,000 l/s

For thousands of miles the Nile, Egypt's lifeline, runs like a seemingly endless oasis through desert plains. The river supplies drinking water for most Egyptians and 95 percent of the country's water for irrigation.

Image:
A view of a bridge over the Nile River during a heavy sand storm in Cairo. Situated on the fringes of the Sahara desert, Cairo occasionally suffers from such storms. (Photo: Reuters)

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The World's Most Important Rivers

4. Yangtze (7/15)

Length: 6,300 km (3,917 miles)
Water Discharge: 31,900,000 l/s

China's most important river is also Asia's longest river, and third worldwide behind the Amazon and Nile. The river is an important source of freshwater for hundreds of millions.

Image:
A laborer works on the Danjiangkou Dam at the Han River. The dam will help redirect water from the Yangtze along the South-to-North Water Diversion Project to relieve severe water shortages in northern areas. (Photo: Reuters)

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The World's Most Important Rivers

4. Yangtze (8/15)

Length: 6,300 km (3,917 miles)
Water Discharge: 31,900,000 l/s

The Yangtze is dammed by the biggest hydro power plant on Earth. The Three Gorges Dam is meant to control flooding along the river, which has killed thousands of people in the past.

Image:
These satelite images show a 60-kilometer stretch of the Yangtze River west of the Three Gorges Dam. The top image dates from 2001, before the reservoir was built. The bottom image from 2003 shows the partial filling of the reservoir, including numerous side canyons. (Image: NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team)

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The World's Most Important Rivers

5. Mississippi-Missouri (9/15)

Length: 6,275 km (3,902 miles)
Water Drainage: 16,200,000 l/s

While the Mississippi itself is only the second longest river in the USA, it forms the longest and most important river system in North America with its tributaries Missouri and Jefferson. The river system has the third largest drainage basin in the world and drains 41 percent of the United States, Alaska excluded.

Image:
The satellite image shows the Mississippi Delta south of New Orleans, where the Mississippi enters the Bay of Mexico. A cloud of sediment brought by the river is clearly visible. (Courtesy: NASA)

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The World's Most Important Rivers

5. Mississippi-Missouri (10/15)

Length: 6,275 km (3,902 miles)
Water Drainage: 16,200,000 l/s

The Mississippi river system drains North America's agricultural heartland. With the water comes pollution and massive amounts of fertilizers that create a "death zone" devoid of marine life in the Bay of Mexico.

Image:
Satellite observations show large blooms of phytoplankton extending from the mouth of the Mississippi to the Texas coast. Their decomposition strips oxygen from the surrounding water killing most marine life. Reds and oranges represent high concentrations of phytoplankton and river sediment. (Image: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio)

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The World's Most Important Rivers

6. Yenisey (11/15)

Length: 5,539 km (3,445 miles)
Water Discharge: 19,600,000 l/s

The Yenisey and its tributaries Angara and Selenga form the largest river system flowing into the Arctic Ocean. Draining huge parts of the Siberian plateau, the river flows from South to North.

Image: The satellite image shows the Yenisey on its way north to the Arctic Sea. In spring, the world's fifth longest river runs high with melt water and floods the plains along its way, while its mouth is still blocked by ice packs from the Arctic Sea. (Image: NASA/ Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team)

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The World's Most Important Rivers

7. Niger (12/15)

Length: 4,200 km(2,611 miles)
Water Discharge: 9,570,000 l/s

There are at least a dozen rivers longer or stronger than West Africa's longest river, but none of such critical importance for the surrounding area. Running through the dry Sahel zone and streches of the Sahara desert, the river is a lifeline for millions of people.

Image:
The Niger River skirts the edge of the Sahara in Mali before joining the Bani River in a large inland delta. Huge sand dunes, visible as diagonal stripes, frame the course of both rivers. (Image: courtesy of USGS National Center for EROS and NASA Landsat Project Science Office)

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The World's Most Important Rivers

8. Brahmaputra (13/15)

Length: 2,948 km (1,832 miles)
Water Discharge: 19,200,000 l/s

Sourced by the glaciers of the Himalayas, the Brahmaputra flows into the Indian Ocean and creates a huge Delta with the Ganges in Bangladesh.

Image:
The labyrinthine channels of the Brahmaputra River in northeast India outline temporary sand bars during the dry season. The islands are used for agriculture. During monsoon season, many of these islands flood, but the seasonal farmer communities risks floods for food. (Photo: Copyright Bruce G. Marcot, used by permission, www.taos-telecommunity.org/epow/)

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The World's Most Important Rivers

9. Ganges (14/15)

Length: 2,510 km (1,560 miles)
Water Discharge: 12,037,000 l/s

While the Ganges is not India's biggest river, it is of central importance. It has been worshipped by Hindus for millennia. The river drains a fertile basin that supports one of the world's highest-density human populations.

Image:
An old man performs Tarpana, a Hindu ritual, at the Ganges River in the eastern Indian city of Calcutta. People whose fathers have died perform the ritual to seek a peaceful soul for the dead on the holy day of Mahalaya. (Photo: Reuters)

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The World's Most Important Rivers

10. Danube (15/15)

Length: 2,850 km (1,771 miles)
Water Drainage: 7,130,000 l/s

The Danube is small compared to giants like the Amazon or the Nile, but Europe's second longest river runs through more countries than most other rivers on Earth. From its headwaters in Germany’s Black Forest, the Danube winds its way through ten European countries to drain into the Black Sea.

Image:
The Danube is a major waterway for international trade, but the Iron Gate gorges visible on this satellite image made navigation difficult. Control over this section of the Danube was gained with the construction of the Iron Gate Dam in the Sip Gorge. (Image: NASA/ Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory)

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Water Cycle Part 2: Changing Gear

Part 2: The Water Flows Faster - Accelarated Evaporation and Solutions

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