Washington: After nearly four centuries of confusion, researchers have finally come to the conclusion as to where does the Amazon River actually begins.
The question is complicated by the number of tributaries that feed into it, with at least five Peruvian rivers grabbing the title at some point since the mid-1600s.
Now, a group of researchers write in Area that the Apurimac River has wrongly been attributed as its source since 1971, and they have a replacement: southwestern Peru`s Mantaro River, Fox News reported.
If the designation sticks, another change would follow: The Amazon would grow, with another 47 to 57 miles being tacked on to its roughly 4,000-mile length.
But it`s a somewhat muddied conclusion. First, the definition of "source" isn`t entirely established, but the currently accepted explainer is "the most distant point up the longest tributary in the river`s drainage basin," National Geographic said.
Using topographic maps, satellite imagery, digital hydrographic datasets, and GPS tracking data to chart the Mantaro, the team determined it was roughly 10 percent longer than the Apurimac, handing it the title.
