There are a huge number of rivers in the world - shallow and deep, deep and shallow. The deepest point of the sea is the well-known Mariana Trench, but is there such a point near any river? It is believed that rivers do not have the deepest points, but one of them can rightfully be considered the deepest in the world.
African miracle
The deepest river in the world is the Congo River, which flows through Central Africa. This deepest and longest (after the Nile) river can compete with the Amazon itself - after all, the Congo crosses the equator twice. This river was discovered in 1482 by a Portuguese navigator. In the middle reaches of the Congo, the relief of the mountains turns into a flat landscape, and the river flows freely over a wide valley with many lakes and channels.
The width of the valley, in which the Congo flows, in some places is twenty kilometers.
In its lower course, the river abuts the South Guinean Upland and turns out to be "walled up" in a narrow 300-meter wide gorge. In some places, the depth of the Congo reaches 230 meters or more, which makes the point of this river the deepest in the world. On this site you can find many rapids and rapids, called Livingstone Falls. The main tributaries of the Congo River are Sangi, Ubangi and Kassai, and its basin includes such huge lakes as Kivu, Tanganyika, Bangweulu, Tumba and Mweru.
Features of Congo
Congo is considered an unusual river with the greatest economic potential among other world rivers. This is due to its incredible high flow and a large drop in the channel along the entire course of the river. Unlike the Congo, the rest of the large rivers in their lower reaches have a flat relief. The total reserve of river hydropower is estimated at 390 GW - Livingston waterfall alone has 113, 4 GW of annual electricity.
The only challenge to harnessing the potential of the Congo is the difficulty of harnessing its power.
In 2014, it is planned to start construction of the Grand Inga hydroelectric power station, the capacity of which will be 39.6 GW, and the cost of construction will cost 80 billion dollars. This hydroelectric power station will twice exceed the most powerful modern hydroelectric power station "Three Gorges", which is located in China, and one hundred times - the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station.
The discharge of water reserves at the mouth of the Congo can vary (depending on the season) from 23,000 m³ / s to 75,000 m³ / s, averaging 46,000 m³ / s. The volume of the average annual flow of the river reaches 1450 km³, while the volume of solid flow is 50 million tons annually. In addition, the Congo has a relatively flat water regime, which is ensured by intermittent rainy seasons in different river basin sections. At the mouth of the Congo, the ocean is desalinated 76 kilometers from the coast.
