PBS: "Earth's Great Rivers: Amazon"
Executive Producer
The Amazon is the river of superlatives, flowing more than 4,000 miles from the Andes to the Atlantic. Along its incredible journey it collects and transports one-fifth of the world's fresh water. When the Amazon crashes into the Atlantic Ocean, the force is so great that you can see the resulting plume from space.
Due to its enormous size, it still hides secrets - one of its greatest lies in the Amazon basin, where the river crashes into the ocean. Jennifer became the first woman to explore the Amazon basin in a submarine, witnessing beautiful reefs thriving at depths rarely thought possible, and enormous sponges stretching 6-feet in length, each one thousands of years old. These reefs and sponges feed on the nutrients the Amazon pours into the basin, nutrients the river collects at its source in the Andes and carries to the ocean.
It was assumed the powerful currents of the Amazon would prevent ocean life from flourishing, but the opposite is discovered. The Andes build the Atlantic's oceanic reefs through the mighty power of Amazon.