One river carries more water than the next seven biggest rivers on Earth combined. It drains a forest twice the size of India, holding roughly a tenth of every known species on the planet.
MCQquestion.comWorldGeo0023 · World Geography
The Amazon Rainforest
The world’s largest river, draining its largest rainforest
Scale
6.7 million km², nine countries
Twice the size of India, spanning Brazil, Peru, Colombia, and six other countries and territories.
Discharge
More water than the next 7 rivers combined
The Amazon River’s discharge, about 219,000 cubic metres per second, dwarfs every other river system on Earth.
2025
Deforestation falls 68% in a year
The Amazon Regional Observatory records the sharpest annual drop in forest loss in over a decade.
2026
Fires rise even as clearing falls
Deforestation keeps dropping into 2026, but wildfires climb over 30%, a real mixed picture.
Less clearing, more burning
Lower deforestation numbers look like good news on their own. Rising wildfire counts in the same period complicate that story considerably.
✊ Scale and Location
Scale and Location
- The Amazon rainforest covers about 6.7 million square kilometres, roughly twice the size of India.
- It spans nine countries and territories: Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana.
- Brazil holds the largest share of the forest by far.
- It is the world’s largest tropical rainforest by area, and the single largest reserve of tropical biodiversity on Earth.
📘 The Amazon River System
The Amazon River System
- The Amazon River runs at least 6,400 kilometres, traditionally counted as the world’s second-longest river after the Nile.
- That ranking isn’t fully settled. A 2007 Brazilian study, using a different source point and river mouth, argued the Amazon is actually longer. The claim remains disputed, not widely accepted.
- The Amazon holds the world’s largest drainage basin, around 7.05 million square kilometres.
- Its discharge, about 219,000 cubic metres per second, is greater than the next seven largest rivers on Earth combined.
- The river system has roughly 1,100 tributaries, 17 of them longer than 1,500 kilometres.
- For how the Amazon compares to the world’s other major river systems, see WorldGeo0009 — The World’s Major Drainage Systems.
Test Yourself
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🌟 Unmatched Biodiversity
Unmatched Biodiversity
- The Amazon holds at least 10% of all known species on Earth, across plants, animals, fungi, and microbes.
- A single hectare in the Ecuadorian Amazon can hold more tree species than all of North America combined.
- The forest stores an estimated 150 to 200 billion tonnes of carbon.
- Through transpiration and photosynthesis, its trees help regulate rainfall and climate patterns well beyond South America itself.
📰 Deforestation: A More Complicated Recent Story
Deforestation: A More Complicated Recent Story
- Amazon deforestation fell 68% in 2025, according to the Amazon Regional Observatory, its sharpest annual drop in years.
- In the first half of 2026, deforestation fell a further 38% compared to the same period the year before, reaching its lowest level in about a decade.
- That trend isn’t the whole picture. Over the same period, the number of wildfires in the region rose by more than 30%.
- Less land is being actively cleared, but drier conditions are letting more of the standing forest burn instead.
- Reading only the deforestation numbers would miss half of what’s actually happening on the ground.
📝 Previous Year Questions
A Biome Description Points to Tropical Rain Forest
- The clues Fast leaf-litter decomposition, near-bare soil, and vegetation reaching the canopy via climbers and epiphytes are classic tropical rain forest traits — seen across the Amazon and other rain forests worldwide.
- Answer: (d) Tropical rain forest.
- View this question on the full 2021 paper →
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