"The Amazon River and its current lengthy and transcontinental bed is about 11 million years old, according to a new study. Previously, the river's exact age was unknown, researchers say.
The Amazon, which starts in the Andes and flows easterly into the Atlantic Ocean, originated as a transcontinental river back in the Miocene Epoch between 11.8 million and 11.3 million years ago, and took its present shape about 2.4 million years ago, according to the study by Carina Hoorn of the University of Amsterdam, Jorge Figueiredo of the University of Liverpool, England, and colleagues.
The new estimate won't set any age records for rivers — Earth's oldest rivers are hundreds of millions of years old.
In fact, while the Amazon is said by some to be Earth's longest river, it is "quite a youngster among rivers," Hoorn told LiveScience. "For comparison, the New River in North America and the Nile in Africa are thought to be several hundred million years old. The reason for this is that rivers are controlled by their source area. Rivers are as old as the mountains in the hinterlands, one could say. The Andes uplifted mostly in the past 12 million years and hence the formation and shifting of drainage patterns."
The Amazon, which starts in the Andes and flows easterly into the Atlantic Ocean, originated as a transcontinental river back in the Miocene Epoch between 11.8 million and 11.3 million years ago, and took its present shape about 2.4 million years ago, according to the study by Carina Hoorn of the University of Amsterdam, Jorge Figueiredo of the University of Liverpool, England, and colleagues.
The new estimate won't set any age records for rivers — Earth's oldest rivers are hundreds of millions of years old.
In fact, while the Amazon is said by some to be Earth's longest river, it is "quite a youngster among rivers," Hoorn told LiveScience. "For comparison, the New River in North America and the Nile in Africa are thought to be several hundred million years old. The reason for this is that rivers are controlled by their source area. Rivers are as old as the mountains in the hinterlands, one could say. The Andes uplifted mostly in the past 12 million years and hence the formation and shifting of drainage patterns."
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- DeliaTheArtist
- added this
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Wow, this article opened my eyes. The scenery is spectacular.
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- CHANLEEPENG
- 5 months ago
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