Amazon Rainforest Facts

Amazon Rainforest Facts: Amazon rainforest is the largest rain forest on earth, it is so big that more than half of the South America continent is covered with this giant rainforest. Amazon Rainforest have total land area of 5.5 million sq. km. It is surrounded by Brazil, Ecuador, Venezuela, Suriname, Peru, Colombia, Bolivia, Guyana, and French Guiana. The total number of trees in this gigantic rainforest are 390 billion of 16,000 species and it is the house of 10% species in the world. It is said that more than 50% of the fertilizing dust in the Amazon rainforest comes from the Sahara Desert in Africa.

1-6 Interesting Amazon Rainforest Facts

1. 20% of the Earth’s oxygen is produced by the Amazon rainforest.

2. The Amazon River once flowed in the opposite direction, from east to west.

3. The Amazon represents more than half of the Earth’s rainforests.

4. Amazonian Butterflies Drink Turtle Tears.

Source

5. There’s an underground river 4 KM (2.4 mi) beneath the Amazon River in Brazil, that might be as long, but hundreds of times wider.

6. Sand from the Sahara is blown by the wind all the way to the Amazon, recharging its minerals. The desert literally fertilizes the rainforest.

7-13 Interesting Amazon Rainforest Facts

7. In 2008, Norway donated US$1 billion to help save the Amazon rainforest.

8. The Amazon River discharges 5 times as much water as any other river on the planet.

9. Iquitos, Peru is the largest city in the world inaccessible by road. It’s located deep in the Amazon rainforest and has over 400,000 people.

10. There are no bridges over the Amazon River.

11. During the past 40 years, at least 20% of the Amazon rainforest has been cut down.

12. There are vampire bats in the Amazon rainforest as well as poisonous dart frogs.

13. If deforestation continues, we’ll completely lose the rainforests within the next 40 years.

14-18 Interesting Amazon Rainforest Facts

14. The Amazon rainforest contains more than 3,000 fruits. Only 200 of these are consumed in the western world.

15. More than 80% of the world’s food has its origins in the Amazon rainforest.

16. The Amazon River is by far the world’s largest river by volume. It has over 1,100 tributaries, 17 of which are longer than 1000 miles.

17. The forest floor is almost completely dark – with less than 1% of the available sunlight making it through the tree canopy above.

18. Due to efforts to fight deforestation in the Amazon, rates have been reducing slightly, but it is still an issue today.

19-22 Interesting Amazon Rainforest Facts

19. The Amazon rainforest is also referred to as the ‘Lungs of the Planet’ because it produces more than 20% of the world’s oxygen.

20. The rainforests have begun to be destroyed in the last 100 years to make way for farm land. Today, the rainforests are being destroyed by 1.5 acres every second. That’s not a typo.

You May also like: Venezuela Facts

21. In 2007, a man named Martin Strel swam the entire length of the Amazon river! To complete his splashing jungle journey, Martin powered through the water for up to ten hours a day for 66 days!

22. In 1500 there were between 6 and 9 million Amazon natives. Today there are only an estimated 250,000 left. There are approximately 170 different languages spoken by the Amazon natives.