Randy Bradford, age 13, of Baton Rouge, La., for his question:
HOW WIDE IS THE AMAZON RIVER?
Chief river of South America and the world's second longest river is the gigantic Amazon River. The Amazon is too wide at many points for a person on the bank to see the opposite shore. The river actually widens to about 90 miles at its mouth.
The Amazon is 4,000 miles long longer than the highway route between San Francisco and New York. During moat of its course, the river ranges from a mile and a half to six miles wide. The depth of the waterway averages about 40 feet and increases to more than 300 feet at some places.
Only the Nile River in Africa is longer than the Amazon. The Amazon has more water than any other river more than the Nile, the Mississippi and the Yangtze rivers together.
The Amazon River's basin covers about 2.4 million square miles and makes up the world's largest tropical rain forest. The region is approximately two thirds as large as the area of the entire United States.
Rainfall in the Amazon region ranges from about 50 inches in the low lying areas to about 120 inches near the Andes Mountains in Peru. The air is very humid in most sections of the river basin. Temperatures in the basin average about 85 degrees Fahrenheit and varies little throughout the year.
Ocean vessels can sail about 2,300 miles up the Amazon to Iquitos, Peru. Ships bring in clothing, food, tools and other products. They pick up such raw materials as animal skins, Brazil nuts, lumber and rubber.
The ships also take aboard live birds, fish and other animals bought by pet shops and zoos.
The amazing Amazon River starts high in the Andes Mountains of Peru as a small stream called the Apurimac River. The Apurimac lies 17,200 feet above sea level. It flows northwest into the Ucayali River, the lower branch of the Amazon in Peru.
The Amazon River basin is the home of such animals as alligators, anacondas, monkeys, parrots, sloths and many species of insects. There are also lots of pirarucu, one of the largest freshwater fish of South America, as well as the flesh eating piranha.
A great variety of plant life can be found in the Amazon rain forest. Scientists have found more than 3,000 species of plants in one square mile there.
Some of the trees in the Amazon basin stand as tall as 200 feet. Their tops grow so close together that only a little sunlight can reach the ground.
More than 200 tributaries flow into the Amazon River. These rivers include the Japura, the Jurua, the Madeira, the Purus, the Tapajos, the Xingu and the Rio Negro.
An unusually high ocean tide occasionally overpowers the current at the mouth of the Amazon. This action creates a wall of water called a bore that measures up to 15 feet high and rushes upstream.