Streamflow, aka discharge, aka channel runoff, is the volume of water in a stream flowing past a point in a specified period of time. The international standard unit of measure for streamflow is cubic meters per second. River discharge varies greatly from the rainy season to the dry season, so the most common comparative metric is annual average cubic meters per second. Obviously, streamflow in a channel increases as tributaries join the stream so the location where the flow was measured is an important factor. Streamflow for some rivers of interest expressed in annual average cubic meters/second measured at the mouth.
- Amazon (world's largest river by far) 209,000
- Congo (largest river in Africa) 41,200
- Orinoco (2nd largest river in South America) 36,000
- Saint Lawrence (drainage includes the Great Lakes) 16,800
- Mississippi (drains 31 states & 2 Canadian provinces) 16,792
- Columbia (drains 7 states & 1 Canadian province) 7,500
- Usumacinta (our proposed Sidon) 4,774
- Papaloapan (our proposed Ripliancum Ether 15:8) 2,609
- Mezcalapa - Grijalva (John L. Sorenson's candidate for Sidon) 2,158 (tributary of the Usumacinta in modern times)
- Coatzacoalcos (part of our proposed Land Northward/Land Southward boundary) 1,064
Following a battle south of Manti, the Nephite victors disposed of Lamanite dead by throwing their bodies into river Sidon whose waters carried the corpses to the sea
Alma 44:22. Manti was the southernmost Nephite settlement along the central Sidon corridor. It was not far from the head of Sidon in the narrow strip of wildrness. Streamflow in the Sidon at the point of battle was adequate to carry large numbers of dead bodies hundreds of kilometers northward to the ocean. This means the Sidon south of Manti, not far from the river's head, was already a large and powerful stream. We correlate the city of Manti with the site of Chama about 30 air kilometers NW of Coban in Alta Verapaz. We think the Captain Moroni/Zerahemnah battle took place about 11 air kilometers south of Chama on the Chixoy. See the blog article "
Manti."
![]() |
| Proposed Moroni/Zarahemnah Battlefield |
The Chixoy River at this point has an annual average streamflow of 756 cubic meters/second. This makes it larger than the Colorado River at Lake Havasu, Arizona which (since 1971) is spanned by the original London Bridge.
