What are the top ten most powerful rivers worldwide, as measured by
current strength.

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Request for Question Clarification by rainbow-ga on 05 Nov 2004 05:54 PST

Hi cgmw,

Do you consider measurement of the strength of a river equivalent to
the flow rate of a river?

"The flow rate of a river is the volume of water that passes a section
of the river in a unit of time. Scientists calculate flow rate by
multiplying the depth of the river by its width and the speed of the
flowing water. Flow rate is usually expressed in cubic meters per
second or cubic feet per second(cfs)."

http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761569915/River.html 

Waiting to hear your views.

Best regards,
Rainbow

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Clarification of Question by cgmw-ga on 05 Nov 2004 06:09 PST

For this question, the strength of the river is equivalent to the flow
rate of the river.

Hi cgmw,

The top ten most powerful rivers measured by river mouth flow rate are:

1. Amazon
2. Congo
3. Orinoco
4. Yangtze
5. Brahmaputra
6. Mississippi
7. Yenisey
8. Parana
9. Lena
10. Mekong

The next ten most powerful rivers are the following:

11. Tocantins
12. Tapajos
13. Ob
14. Ganges
15. Irrawaddy
16. St. Lawrence
17. Amur
18. Xingu
19. Mackenzie
20. Xijiang

You can find all 50 of the world's largest rivers (by the estimated
river mouth flow rate) at the following site, on page 5:

Climate and Global Dynamics (CGD) Division 
http://www.cgd.ucar.edu/cas/adai/papers/runoff-paper1.pdf


Search criteria:
rivers rank powerful OR strong worldwide
rivers "flow rate" world strength OR strongest

I hope this is helpful. If you have any questions regarding my answer
please don't hesitate to ask before rating it.

Best regards,
Rainbow

excellent... exactly what we needed. Google, et. al.  rocks!

Who would have guessed that the Nile is not in the top 50?

I wouldn't have thought that the Nile wasn't in the top 50 but I don't
think it makes that much of a positive displacement in the Med, where
it appears the measurements are taken. Even from biblical times we are
told that in the wet season the Nile goes sideways instead of
forwards.