Top-Ten Rivers: Volume, Watershed Area, and Population
The world has thousands of rivers and creeks. The ten biggest rivers and their
tributaries, however, carry almost half of the total water that flows off the land and
into the oceans.
(A tributary is a smaller river that flows into a larger river. The area that is drained by
a river and all of its tributaries is called the watershed of the river.)
Nearly one fourth of all the world’s people live in the watersheds of the 10 biggest rivers.
River
Qmqaon
Congo
Ganges
Yangtze
Orinoco
Parana
Yenisei
Mississippi
Lena
Mekong
Major Country
Brazil
Congo/Zaire
India
China
Venezuela
Argentina
Russia
U. S.
Russia
Vietnam
River Volume
(classrooms
per second)
500
110
100
90
80
60
50
45
40
40
Area of
Watershed
(colorados)
25
15
8
7
4
11
10
12
8
3
Runoff
(classrooms
per Colorado)
20
7
12
4
5
13
Population in
Watershed
(millions)
20
60
500
400
30
100
5
90
2
90
To help you compare these rivers, we have invented two units of measurement:
A classroom is a box 10 meters (33 feet) long, 10 meters (33 feet) wide, and 12 feet
high (that’s two fathoms, or “mark twain” for a riverboat captain).
Filled to the ceiling, a classroom of this size would hold 100,000 gallons of water.
The Amazon River of South America is a huge river - it could fill 500 classrooms in one
second. Fill in the blank in this sentence:
The Amazon carries more water than the next ____ rivers, combined.
A colorado is an area of 100,000 square miles, about the size of the state of Colorado.
This is as big as
2 Alabamas, Wisconsins, or New Yorks,
3 Indianas or Maines,
10 Marylands,
14 New Jerseys,
20 Connecticuts, or
50 Delawares
Complete the table above and use the information to answer the questions on the
following page.
1. How many of the top-ten rivers are located in
Africa ___ Australia ___ Eurasia ___
N America ___
S America ___
2. Which two rivers have a volume that is more than 15 classrooms per colorado?
_________________
_________________
3. What do those two rivers have in common? They are both located
a. in cold regions with a lot of snow b. near the equator
c. in Eurasia
4. Which three rivers have more than 20 million people per colorado-sized area?
_________________ _________________ _________________
5. What do those three rivers have in common? They are all located
a. in cold regions with a lot of snow b. near the equator
c. in Eurasia
Choose one river (e.g., the Mississippi) and write a three-paragraph essay comparing it to
the other top-ten rivers. Clearly emphasize the most important comparisons.