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This is a list of the longest rivers on Earth. It includes river systems over 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) in length.

Definition of length

There are many factors, such as the identification of the source, the identification or the definition of the mouth, and the scale of measurement of the river length between source and mouth, that determine the precise meaning of "river length". As a result, the length measurements of many rivers are only approximations (see also coastline paradox). In particular, there seems to exist disagreement as to whether the Nile or the Amazon is the world's longest river. The Nile has traditionally been considered longer, but in 2007 and 2008 some scientists claimed that the Amazon is longer by measuring the river plus the adjacent Pará estuary and the longest connecting tidal canal. A peer-reviewed article published 2009 in the International Journal of Digital Earth concludes that the Nile is longer.

While this does tie in with the coastline paradox in that the length increases with the resolution of the measurement, it does not tend to infinity because a river's length is not a fractal. However, the path along the river's deepest point is fractal in the same way that the coastline is.

Even when detailed maps are available, the length measurement is not always clear. A river may have multiple channels, or anabranches. The length may depend on whether the center or the edge of the river is measured. It may not be clear how to measure the length through a lake or reservoir. Seasonal and annual changes may alter both rivers and lakes. Other factors that can change the length of a river include cycles of erosion and flooding, dams, levees, and channelization. In addition, the length of meanders can change significantly over time due to natural or artificial cutoffs, when a new channel cuts across a narrow strip of land, bypassing a large river bend. For example, due to 18 cutoffs created between 1766 and 1885, the length of the Mississippi River from Cairo, Illinois, to New Orleans, Louisiana, was reduced by 351 kilometres (218 miles).

These points make it difficult, if not impossible, to get an accurate measurement of the length of a river. The varying accuracy and precision also makes it difficult to make length comparisons between different rivers without a degree of uncertainty. There is no strictly agreed upon standard for dealing with the nuances of measuring rivers and as such the true length of a river isn't necessarily a single, discrete, correct number, nor is it static.

List of river systems longer than 1,000 km

For most rivers, different sources provide conflicting information on the length of a river system. The information in different sources is between parentheses.

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (July 2011)

Notes

• When the length of a river is followed by an asterisk, it is an average of multiple information sources. If the difference in lengths between given information sources is significant, all lengths are listed. But if the lengths from secondary information sources are similar, they are averaged and that figure has an asterisk.
• Scientists debate whether the Amazon or the Nile is the longest river in the world. Traditionally, the Nile is considered longer, but recent information suggests that the Amazon may be longer. Differences in the recorded length of the Amazon mainly depend on whether the course south of the Ilha de Marajó at the Amazon's mouth is to be treated as part of the Amazon, or as part of the separate Tocantins River. New evidence, (dated 16 June 2007) obtained from a high-altitude scientific venture in the Andes, claims that "the Amazon is longer than the Nile by 100 km, with its longest headwater being the Carhuasanta stream originating in the south of Peru on the Nevado Mismi mountain's northern slopes and flowing into the Río Apurímac". However, the origin of the river at Nevado Mismi had already been known more than one decade earlier (see Jacek Palkiewicz), and satellite based measuring from this origin to the Amazon mouth has resulted in not more than 6,400 km.
• Generally, the most commonly used/anglicised name of the river is used. The name in a native language or alternate spelling may be shown.

River systems that may have existed in the past

Amazon–Congo

The Amazon basin formerly drained westwards into the Pacific Ocean, until the Andes rose and reversed the drainage.

The Congo basin is completely surrounded by high land, except for its long narrow exit valley past Kinshasa, including waterfalls around Manyanga. That gives the impression that most of the Congo basin was formerly on a much higher land level and that the Congo River was rejuvenated by much of its lower course being removed, likeliest when Africa split from South America when Gondwanaland broke up due to continental drift, and before that, the Congo would likely have flowed into the Amazon, producing a river around 6000 miles or 10,000 km long.

West Siberian Glacial Lake drainage

This river would have been about 10,000 km (6,200 mi) long, in the last ice age. Its longest headwater was the Selenga river of Mongolia: it drained through ice-dammed lakes and the Aral Sea and the Caspian Sea to the Black Sea.

Lobourg

During the last glacial maximum, much of what is now the southern part of the North Sea was land, known to archaeologists as Doggerland. At this time, the Thames, the Meuse, the Scheldt, and the Rhine probably joined before flowing into the sea, in a system known by palaeogeographers as the Loubourg or Lobourg River System. There is some debate as to whether this river would have flowed southwest into what is now the English Channel, or flowed north, emerging into the North Sea close to modern Yorkshire. If the latter hypothesis is true, the Rhine would have attained a length of close to 1,650 kilometres (1,030 mi). The former hypothesis would have produced a shorter river, some 1,400 kilometres (870 mi) in length. Current scientific research favours the former opinion, with the Thames and Rhine meeting in a large lake, the outflow of which was close to the present-day Straits of Dover.

See also

• Lists of rivers
• List of drainage basins by area
• List of rivers by discharge
• List of river films and television series
• List of rivers of Antarctica

Notes and references

Notes

1. ^ The Nile is usually said to be the longest river in the world, with a length of about 6,650 km, and the Amazon the second longest, with a length of at least 6,400 km. In 2007 and 2008, some scientists claimed that the Amazon has a length of 6,992 km and was longer than the Nile, whose length was calculated as 6,853 km. They achieved this result by adding the waterway from the Amazon's southern outlet through tidal canals and the Pará estuary of the Tocantins. The dispute is: "Is the channel south of Isla de Marajó to be treated as part of the Amazon, or as part of the Rio Tocantins?" A peer-reviewed article, published in 2009, states a length of 7,088 km for the Nile and 6,575 km for the Amazon, measured by using a combination of satellite image analysis and field investigations to the source regions. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, as of 2020, the length of the Amazon remains open to interpretation and continued debate. Note that disputed values have been put in parentheses.

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2. for more on this, see coastline paradox
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External links

• Principal Rivers of the World

• Lists of rivers
• Lists by length
• Lists of longest rivers