The Amazon River in South America is the second longest [2] river in the world and by far the largest by waterflow with an average discharge greater than the next seven largest rivers combined (not including Madeira and Rio Negro, which are tributaries of the Amazon). Sony VAIO VPCZ125GX/S Battery

The Amazon, which has the largest drainage basinin the world, about 7,050,000 square kilometres (2,720,000 sq mi), accounts for approximately one-fifth of the world's total river flow.[3][4]

In its upper stretches, above the confluence of the Negro River, the Amazon is called Solimoes inBrazil; Sony VAIO VPCZ127FC Battery

however, in Peru, Colombia and Ecuador, as well as the rest of the Spanish-speaking world, the river is generally called the Amazon downstream from the confluence of the Maranon and Ucayalirivers in Peru. The Ucayali-Apurimac river system is considered the main source of the Amazon. Sony VAIO VPCZ128GC Battery

The width of the Amazon varies between 1.6 and 10 kilometres (1.0 and 6.2 mi) at low stage, but expands during the wet season to 48 kilometres (30 mi) or more. The river enters the Atlantic Oceanin a broad estuary about 240 kilometres (150 mi) wide. The mouth of the main stem is 80 kilometres (50 mi).[5] Sony VAIO VPCZ12M9E/B Battery

Because of its vast dimensions, it is sometimes called The River Sea. The first bridge in the Amazon river system (over the Rio Negro) opened on October 10, 2010. It is just outside Manaus.

The Amazon Basin, the largest in the world, covers about 30% of South America, an area of approximately 7,050,000 square kilometres (2,720,000 sq mi). Sony VAIO VPCZ13M9E/B Battery

It flows from west to east from Iquitos in Peru to all the way across Brazil to the Atlantic. It gathers its waters from 5 degrees north latitude to 20 degrees south latitude. Its most remote sources are found on the inter-Andeanplateau, just a short distance from the Pacific Ocean. Sony VAIO VPCZ13V9E/X Battery

The Amazon River and its tributaries are characterized by extensive forested areas that become flooded every rainy season. Every year the river rises more than 9 metres (30 ft), flooding the surrounding forests, known as varzea ("flooded forests").Sony VAIO VPCZ13Z9E/X Battery

The Amazon's flooded forests are the most extensive example of this habitat type in the world.[6] In an average dry season, 110,000 square kilometres (42,000 sq mi) of land are water-covered, while in the wet season, the flooded area of the Amazon Basin rises to 350,000 square kilometres (140,000 sq mi).[7] Sony VAIO VPCZZZHJ Battery

The quantity of water released by the Amazon to the Atlantic Ocean is enormous: up to 300,000 cubic metres per second (11,000,000 cu ft/s) in the rainy season, with an average of 209,000 cubic metres per second (7,400,000 cu ft/s) from 1973 to 1990.[8] Sony VAIO VPZ117 Battery

The Amazon is responsible for about 20% of the Earth's fresh water entering the ocean.[6] The river pushes a vast plume of fresh water into the ocean. The plume is about 400 kilometres (250 mi) long and between 100 and 200 kilometres (62 and 120 mi) wide. Sony VAIO VPZ118 Battery

The fresh water, being lighter, flows on top of the seawater, diluting the salinity and altering the color of the ocean surface over an area up to 1,000,000 square miles (2,600,000 km2) in extent. For centuries ships have reported fresh water near the Amazon's mouth yet well out of sight of land in what otherwise seemed to be the open ocean.[4] Sony VAIO VPZ119 Battery

The Atlantic has sufficient wave and tidal energy to carry most of the Amazon's sediments out to sea, thus the Amazon does not form a true delta. The great deltas of the world are all in relatively protected bodies of water while the Amazon empties directly into the turbulent Atlantic.[9] Sony VPCM11M1E/B Battery

The tidal bore is the reason the Amazon does not have a protruding delta; the ocean rapidly carries away the vast volume of silt carried by the Amazon, making it impossible for a delta to grow past the shorelines.

There is a natural water union between the Amazon and the Orinoco basins, the so-called Casiquiare canal. Sony VPCM11M1E/W Battery

The Casiquiare is a river distributary of the upper Orinoco, which flows southward into the Rio Negro, which in turn flows into the Amazon. The Casiquiare is the largest river on the planet that links two major river systems, a so-called bifurcation. Sony VPCM12M1E/L Battery

The Amazon river has a series of major river systems in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, some of which flow into the Maranon and Ucayali, others directly into the Amazon proper. Among others, these include the following rivers: Sony VPCM12M1E/P Battery

Putumayo, Caqueta, Vaupes,Guainia, Morona, Pastaza, Nucuray, Urituyacu, Chambira, Tigre, Nanay, Napo, andHuallaga.

The most distant source of the Amazon was established in 1996,[10] 2001,[11] 2007,[12]and 2008,[13] as a glacial stream on a snowcapped 5,597 m (18,363 ft) peak calledNevado Mismi in the Peruvian Andes, Sony VPCM12M1E/W Battery

roughly 160 km (99 mi) west of Lake Titicaca and 700 km (430 mi) southeast of Lima. The waters from Nevado Mismi flow into the Quebradas Carhuasanta and Apacheta, which flow into the Rio Apurimac which is a tributary of the Ucayali which later joins the Maranon to form the Amazon proper. Sony VPCM13M1E/L Battery

While the Ucayali-Maranon confluence is the point at which most geographers place the beginning of the Amazon proper, in Brazil the river is known at this point as theSolimoes das Aguas. Further downriver from that confluence the darkly colored waters of the Rio Negro meet the sandy colored Rio Solimoes, and for over 6 km (4 mi) these waters run side by side without mixing. Sony VPCM13M1E/P Battery

After the confluence of Rio Apurimac and Ucayali, the river leaves Andean terrain and is instead surrounded by floodplain. From this point to the Maranon, some 1,600 km (990 mi), the forested banks are just out of water, and are inundated long before the river attains its maximum flood stage. Sony VPCM13M1E/W Battery

The low river banks are interrupted by only a few hills, and the river enters the enormous Amazon Rainforest.

The river systems and flood plains in Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela, whose waters drain into the Solimoes and its tributaries are called the "Upper Amazon".Sony VAIO VPCZ118 Battery

The Amazon River proper runs mostly through Brazil and Peru, it is part of the border between Colombia and Peru, and it has tributaries reaching into Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, and Bolivia.

Flooding

Not all of the Amazon's tributaries flood at the same time of the year. Sony VAIO VPCZ118GC/B Battery

Many branches begin flooding in November, and may continue to rise until June. The rise of the Rio Negro starts in February or March, and begins to recede in June. The Madeira River rises and falls two months earlier than most of the rest of the Amazon. Sony VAIO VPCZ118GX/S Battery

The average depth of the Amazon between Manacapuru and Obidos has been calculated as between 20 to 26 metres (66 to 85 ft). At Manacapuru the Amazon's water level is only about 24 metres (79 ft) above mean sea level. More than half of the water in the Amazon downstream of Manacapuru is below sea level.[14] Sony VAIO VPCZ119 Battery

In its lowermost section the Amazon's depth averages 20 to 50 metres (66 to 160 ft), in some places as much as 100 metres (330 ft).[15]

The main river is navigable for large ocean steamers to Manaus, 1,500 kilometres (930 mi) upriver from the mouth. Sony VAIO VPCZ119FJ/S Battery

Smaller ocean vessels of 3,000 tons or 9,000 tons[5] and 5.5 metres (18 ft) draft can reach as far as Iquitos, Peru, 3,600 kilometres (2,200 mi) from the sea. Smaller riverboats can reach 780 kilometres (480 mi) higher as far as Achual Point. Sony VAIO VPCZ119GC/X Battery

Beyond that, small boats frequently ascend to the Pongo de Manseriche, just above Achual Point.

Geography

At some points the river divides into anabranchs, or multiple channels, often very long, with inland and lateral channels, Sony VAIO VPCZ119L Battery

all connected by a complicated system of natural canals, cutting the low, flat igapo lands, which are never more than 5 metres (16 ft) above low river, into many islands.

From the town of Canaria at the great bend of the Amazon to the Negro, only very low land is found, resembling that at the mouth of the river. Sony VAIO VPCZ119R/B Battery

Vast areas of land in this region are submerged at high water, above which only the upper part of the trees of the sombre forests appear. Near the mouth of the Rio Negro to Serpa, nearly opposite the river Madeira, the banks of the Amazon are low, until approaching Manaus, they rise to become rolling hills. Sony VAIO VPCZ119R/S Battery

At Obidos, a bluff 17 m (56 ft) above the river is backed by low hills. The lower Amazon seems to have once been a gulf of the Atlantic Ocean, the waters of which washed the cliffs near Obidos.

Only about ten percent of the Amazon's water enters downstream of Obidos, Sony VAIO VPCZ11AFJ Battery

very little of which is from the northern slope of the valley. The drainage area of the Amazon Basin above Obidos city is about 5,000,000 square kilometres (1,900,000 sq mi), and, below, only about 1,000,000 square kilometres (390,000 sq mi) (around 20%), exclusive of the 1,400,000 square kilometres (540,000 sq mi) of the Tocantins basin. Sony VAIO VPCZ11AGJ Battery

The Tocantins River enters the Amazon very close to its mouth.

In the lower reaches of the river, the north bank consists of a series of steep, table-topped hills extending for about 240 kilometres (150 mi) from opposite the mouth of the Xingu as far as Monte Alegre. Sony VAIO VPCZ11AVJ Battery

These hills are cut down to a kind of terrace which lies between them and the river.

On the south bank, above the Xingu, an almost-unbroken line of low bluffs bordering the floodplain extends nearly to Santarem in a series of gentle curves before they bend to the southwest, and, Sony VAIO VPCZ11CGX/X Battery

abutting upon the lower Tapajos, merge into the bluffs which form the terrace margin of the Tapajos river valley.

Mouth

The definition of where exactly the mouth of the Amazon is located, and how wide it is, is a matter of dispute, because of the area's peculiar geography. Sony VAIO VPCZ11DGX/SJ Battery

The Para and the Amazon are connected by a series of river channels called furos near the town of Breves; between them lies Marajo, an island almost the size of Switzerland that is the world's largest combined river/sea island.

If the Para river and the Marajo island ocean frontage are included, the Amazon estuary is some 325 kilometres (202 mi) wide.[7] Sony VAIO VPCZ11FHX/XQ Battery

In this case, the width of the mouth of the river is usually measured from Cabo Norte, in the Brazilian state ofAmapa, to Ponta da Tijoca near the town of Curuca, in the state of Para. By this criterion, the Amazon is wider at its mouth than the entire length of the River Thames in England. Sony VAIO VPCZ11V9R/B Battery

A more conservative measurement excluding the Para river estuary, from the mouth of the Araguari River to Ponta do Navio on the northern coast of Marajo, would still give the mouth of the Amazon a width of over 180 kilometres (110 mi). Sony VAIO VPCZ11X9E/B Battery

If only the river's main channel is considered, between the islands of Curua (state of Amapa) and Jurupari (state of Para), the width falls to about 15 kilometres (9.3 mi).

Wildlife

More than one-third of all species in the world live in the Amazon Rainforest,[16] Sony VAIO VPCZ11Z9E/B Battery

a giant tropical forest and river basin with an area that stretches more than 5,400,000 square kilometres (2,100,000 sq mi). It is the richest tropical forest in the world in terms of biodiversity. There are over 2,100 species of fish currently recognized in the Amazon Basin, with more being discovered every year[17] Sony VAIO VPCY11S1E Battery

Mammals

Along with the Orinoco, the Amazon is one of the main habitats of the boto, also known as the Amazon River Dolphin (Inia geoffrensis). It is the largest species of river dolphin, and it can grow to lengths of up to 2.6 metres (8 ft 6 in). Sony VAIO VPCY11V9E/S Battery The color of its skin changes with age. It varies from gray when it is young, to pink and white as it matures. The dolphins usesonar to navigate and hunt in the river's tricky depths.[18] The boto is the subject of a very famous legend in Brazil about adolphin that turns into a man and seduces maidens by the riverside. Sony VAIO VPCY218EC/BI Battery The tucuxi (Sotalia fluviatilis), also a dolphin species, is found both in the rivers of the Amazon Basin and in the coastal waters of South America. The Amazonian Manatee (Trichechus inunguis) also known as "seacow" is found in the northern Amazon River Basin and its tributaries. Sony VAIO VPCY218EC/G Battery It is a mammal and a herbivore. Its population is limited to fresh water habitats and unlike other manatees, they do not venture into salt water. It is classified as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The Amazon and its tributaries are the main habitat of the Giant Otter (Pteronura brasiliensis). Sony VAIO VPCY218EC/L Battery

The giant otter is a member of the weasel family and is the largest of its kind. Because of habitat destruction and hunting its population has dramatically decreased.

Reptiles

The anaconda snake is found in shallow waters in the Amazon Basin. Sony VAIO VPCY218EC/P Battery One of the world's largest species of snake, the anaconda spends most of its time in the water, with just its nostrils above the surface. In addition to the thousands of species of fish, the river supports crabs, algae, and turtles. The caiman, which is related to alligators and other crocodilians, also inhabits the Amazon. Sony VAIO VPCY21S1E/L Battery

Caimans pose a serious threat to humans, as there have been recorded attacks.

Fish

The Amazonian fish fauna is the center of diversity for Neotropical fishes, of which more than 5,600 species are currently known (Albert and Reis, 2011).[19] Sony VAIO VPCY21S1E/P Battery Thebull shark (Carcharhinus leucas) has been reported 4,000 kilometres (2,500 mi) up the Amazon River at Iquitos in Peru. The arapaima, known in Brazil as thepirarucu (Arapaima gigas), is a South American tropical freshwater fish. Sony VAIO VPCY21S1E/SI Battery It is one of the largest fresh water fish in the world, reportedly with a maximum length in excess of 4.5 metres (15 ft) and weight up to 200 kilograms (440 lb).[20] Another Amazonian fresh water fish is the arowana (or aruana in Portuguese), such as the Silver arowana (Osteoglossum bicirrhosum), Sony VAIO VPCZ110 Battery which is also a predator and very similar to the arapaima, but only reaches a length of maximum 120 centimetres (47 in). Also present in large numbers is the notorious piranha, a carnivorous fish which congregates in large schools, and may attack livestock and even humans. Sony VAIO VPCZ110GB/BI Battery There are approximately from 30 to 60 species of piranha. However, only a few of its species are known to attack humans, most notably Pygocentrus nattereri, the Red-bellied Piranha. The candiru are a number of general parasitic, fresh water catfish in the family Trichomycteridae; Sony VAIO VPCZ112GD/S Battery

all are native to the Amazon River.[21] The strongly electric electric eel (Electrophorus electricus) and more than 100 species of weakly electric fishes Gymnotiformes also inhabit the Amazon Basin.

Colonial encounters

During what many archaeologists call the formative period, Sony VAIO VPCZ112GX/S Battery

Amazonian societies were deeply involved in the emergence of South America's highland agrariansystems, and possibly contributed directly to the social and religious fabric constitutive of the Andean civilizational orders.

In 1500, Vicente Yanez Pinzon was the first European to sail into the river.[22] Sony VAIO VPCZ114GX/S Battery

Veins which are abnormally enlarged and appear to be bluish and swollen are known as varicose veins. Some of the common factors which may cause varicose veins are lack of exercise, pregnancy, obesity, injury, excessive weight, prolonged constipation and long standing periods. Some of the symptoms of varicose veins may include fatigue, swelling, leg cramps, restlessness, leg sores, itching and feeling of heaviness in the legs.

Home remedies

There are several home remedies for varicose veins which are simple to use and effective when tried in a proper manner. Some of the popular home remedies are:

1. One of the simplest home remedies for varicose veins is to eat proper diet with plenty of fresh fruits, vegetables and fish. Also try to avoid food rich in carbohydrates and fats.

2. Juice fast is also one of the effective home remedies for varicose veins. All you need to do is consume juice for four to five days without having any other meal. During this period take warm water enema which will help in cleansing the bowels and will prevent constipation. After your juice fast is over try to stick to a strict diet plan. For breakfasts drink orange or lemon juice, for lunch consume salads with olive oil and lemon juice, and for dinner try eating steamed vegetables like cabbage, spinach, cauliflowers, carrots and turnip. Remember not to consume any starchy food such as potatoes and bread.

3. Hot and cold hip bath is also very helpful in treating this problem. All you need to do is take hot and cold hip bath on daily basis. Or you can even try applying cold pack or spraying cold water on the affected area. Mud pack is equally beneficial in treating varicose veins. Apply mudpack before sleeping and allow it to stay there till morning.

4. Daily consume lots of cherries and blackberries. They can be very beneficial in treating varicose veins and will ease the symptoms.

5. You can even try practicing yoga on daily basis. Yoga postures such as gomukhasana, shalabhasana, sirshasana, viparitakarni, padmasana, vajrasana and sarvangasana are very helpful in reducing the pressure on the veins by draining the blood from the legs.

6. Apple cider vinegar is also another effective home remedy. Apply apple cider vinegar on the affected area two to three times in a day on daily basis. This will be very helpful in treating varicose veins.

7. Almond oil and vitamin E oil when mixed and applied on the affected area can prove to be very effective for curing this problem. All you need to do is take little quantities of both the oils and mix them. Now massage the affected area with this mixture. It is recommended to massage daily for better results.

8. While watching television or reading books it is a good practice to rest your legs on a stool or chair in elevated position. This will reduce the pressure from your veins and help in treating the symptoms.

These were some of the effective home remedies which are simple to use, cost-effective and safe to try at home without any side effects.