The Finke River, considered the oldest in the world, runs through the Glen Helen Gorge, in West MacDonnell National Park, in central Australia
Although estimates vary, Australia’s Finke River currently holds the title of oldest river in the world. It is about 350 to 400 million years old, but only appears a few times a year.
Although the Nile and Amazon rivers are famous for being and the largest river in the world by volume of water, respectively, there are still many titles to be claimed in the rest of planet Earth’s mighty waterways.
O oldest river in the world is the subject of some debate, but is widely accepted as being the rio Finkewhich is also known as Larapinta by the indigenous communities of Australia.
The river runs just a few times a yearafter heavy rain and extends for around 600-750 kilometers to its mouth at Lake Eyre.
With about 350 to 400 million yearsthe Finke River has its source in the MacDonnell Ranges in the Northern Territory of Australia. Indigenous legend tells the story that the river was formed when the Rainbow Serpent headed north from Lake Eyre.
AND extremely difficult to determine the exact age of a riverespecially over periods of prolonged geological time, explains the IFLS.
Scientists and geologists can examine the ecological features surrounding mountain ranges and observe the sediments of the riverbed, as well as the “meanders” — features of the river itself that have altered the landscape due to hundreds of millions of years of erosion.
Even after considering all these characteristics and more, it is not unusual for there to bevery varied age estimates covering large periods of time.
It is thought that the oldest river in North America be the paradoxically called New Riverwhich runs approximately 547 kilometers from the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina to Virginia and West Virginia, where it eventually joins the Kanawha River.
Estimates of the age of this river vary greatly, but most suggest that it was between 10 and 360 million yearss. According to a study, this river has been labeled as the “second oldest river in the world” during a 1970s advertising campaign to prevent the river from being dammed.
Across the ocean, the oldest river in Europe is the Meusewhich covers 950 kilometers in three countries: Belgium and the Netherlands, from its starting point in France. It is estimated that this river has between 320 and 340 million years.
Our understanding of river formations is not an exact science, so more scientific evidence may emerge to alter the age of these rivers and better clarify their formation millions of years ago.
