Brazil Scientists Find Signs Of Underground River

SAO PAULO — A huge underground river appears to be flowing thousands of feet beneath the Amazon River, Brazilian scientists said Thursday.

Valiya Hamza of Brazil's National Observatory said researchers found indications the subterranean river is 3,700 miles (6,000 kilometers) long, about the same length as the Amazon on the surface.

Hamza said the discovery of the possible underground river came from studying temperature variations at 241 inactive oil wells drilled in the 1970s and 1980s by Brazil's state-run oil company, Petrobras.

He said the "thermal information" provided by Petrobras allowed his team of researchers to identify the movement of water 13,100 feet (4,000 meters) under the Amazon River.

Their findings were presented last week in Rio de Janeiro at a meeting of the Brazilian Geophysical Society.

The apparent underground river has been named after Hamza, honoring him as the head of the research team that found the signs of the flowing water.

He said the existence of an underground river that also flows west to east would mean that the Amazon rain forest has two drainage systems – the Amazon and Hamza rivers.

Hamza stressed that the studies indicating the underground river were still in their preliminary stage but added that he expected to confirm the subterranean flow by the end of 2014.

He declined to comment on the economic and environmental impact of an underground river in the Amazon rain forest.

Comments

[Daniel McMillan]

10:51 PM on 08/26/2011

I am most interested in the flow rate. Underground aquifers can take thousands of years to refresh, this may be more of a slow moving lake than a "river".

[JustThinkingaBit]

01:32 PM on 08/26/2011

Amazing discovery. Fantastic news ! Brazil is already home of the biggest underground reservoirs of fresh water on earth and this finding only reinforces the strategic importance that territory will play in the coming future, once water resources everywhere (including the Amazon itself) are diminishing. One more reason for the Brazilian government to invest heavily in the updating of the armed forces in order to protect our fantastic array of natural assets.

[capnamerca]

04:52 PM on 08/28/2011

They'll just sell it to the Chinese like they're already doing with the surface of the Amazon Basin.

[housermag]

01:05 PM on 09/06/2011

Brazilian legislation is actually very strict about the purchase of land by foreigners, and the Constitution is very clear about state ownership of underground natural resources. Chinese companies may still, of course, buy the produce of this land. Land ownership, however, is much more limited. You might have mistaken Brazil for parts of the African continent.