Are there only two rivers that flow north?

According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, four of the world's 10 longest rivers flow generally northward: the Nile, the Mackenzie-Peace (in Canada) the Ob and the Lena (in Siberia). In fact, NASA says that there are rivers flowing north on every continent.



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A more precise total should consist of thousands of rivers. It is safe to say that over 250 major rivers in the world actually flow north.

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There are countless examples of rivers flowing northward. Some of the most famous are the world's longest river the Nile, along with Russia's Ob, Lena, and Yenisey Rivers. The Red River in the U.S. and Canada and Florida's St. Johns River also flow north.

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Another common misconception is that only two world's rivers, St. Johns River (US) and River Nile (Africa), flow north. The truth is that the two rivers are examples of the many rivers that flow northwards. However, the exact number of the northward-flowing rivers has not been established.

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Other rivers that flow south to north include: St. John's River in Florida, the San Joaquin River in California, the Red River running through several southern states, the Shennandoah in Virginia and West Virginia, the Ob, Yenisey and Lena Rivers in Russia, and the Mackenzie River in Canada, to name just a few.

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It always does — right? But under Antarctica's ice, water can sometimes run uphill. Under the right conditions, a whole river can spurt from one lake uphill to another lake. That's because the ice weighs so much that it presses down on the water with thousands of pounds of pressure per square inch.

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According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, four of the world's 10 longest rivers flow generally northward: the Nile, the Mackenzie-Peace (in Canada) the Ob and the Lena (in Siberia). In fact, NASA says that there are rivers flowing north on every continent.

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The Yellowstone River flows northward through Yellowstone National Park, feeding and draining Yellowstone Lake, then dropping over the Upper and Lower Yellowstone Falls at the head of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone within the confines of the park.

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Nile River, Arabic Ba?r Al-Nil or Nahr Al-Nil, the longest river in the world, called the father of African rivers. It rises south of the Equator and flows northward through northeastern Africa to drain into the Mediterranean Sea.

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The Everglades is the world's slowest-moving river. When rain fills Lake Okeechobee, in south-central Florida, the lake overflows into the 50-foot wide, 1.5 million acre water filtration system and flows about one meter an hour toward the Gulf of Mexico, at the southern tip of the Sunshine State.

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Water always flows down to the sea, and the land slopes downward through the Great Lakes Basin from west to east, but the Niagara River actually flows north. Today, less than one percent of the water of the Great Lakes is renewable on an annual basis (precipitation and groundwater).

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Over millions of years, much of this water is recycled between the inner Earth, the oceans and rivers, and the atmosphere. This cycling process means that freshwater is constantly made available to Earth's surface where we all live. Volcanoes release massive amounts of water from the inner Earth to the atmosphere.

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Florida is the only state that has two rivers that have the same name. There is a Withlacoochee River in Madison County and a Withlacoochee River located in central Florida.

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Northern America The Missouri River is the longest river in North America and the United States (2,341 mi (3,767 km)). The second longest river in North America and the United States is the Mississippi River (2,320 mi (3,730 km)).

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The Mississippi River rises in Lake Itasca in Minnesota and ends in the Gulf of Mexico. It covers a total distance of 2,340 miles (3,766 km) from its source. The Mississippi River is the longest river of North America.

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