Take a look at a map of the United States or of any country
in the world. Notice how towns and cities tend to be located
next to rivers? This is no coincidence. Rivers
provide water for the essential needs of both tiny towns
and huge cities. There's a good chance that you live near
one of our nation's large rivers.
Ever wonder what rivers are the longest?
Look at the graphic below to see our short list of long rivers. (It's not so easy to define how long a river is. If a number of tributaries merge to form a larger river, how would you define where the river actually begins? Here, we define river length as the distance to the outflow point from the original headwaters where the name defines the complete length. (Source: Statistical Abstract of the U.S., 1986))
Nile: 4,132 miles
Missouri: 2,540 miles |
Earth's water
Water Science home page
USGS Water Resources The URL for this page is http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/riversofworld.html Comments? Contact Howard Perlman Last Modified: May 28, 2003 |