One of the first photos taken by Envisat, ESA's Earth observation satellite, in March 2002.
Flowing more than 6400 km across Brazil, the Amazon River originates in the Peruvian Andes. It is second in length only to the Nile among the rivers of the world.
The Amazon discharge shows the huge amount of sediment it has taken away from the lands it has crossed. It deposits a daily average of 3 million tons of sediment near its mouth. The outpouring of water and sediment is so vast that the salt content and colour of the Atlantic Ocean are altered for a distance of several hundred kilometres from the mouth of the river.