6,000km-long river found 13,000ft below the Amazon
LONDON: Scientists led by an Indian-origin researcher have discovered a huge underground river which they believe is flowing some 13,000 feet beneath the mighty Amazon River in Brazil.
The researchers at Brazil's National Observatory believe the subterranean river is about 6,000km long, about the same length as the Amazon on the surface.
The finding came from studying temperature variations at 241 inactive oil wells drilled in the 1970s by Brazil's state-run oil company Petrobras.
The researchers have named the river 'Hamza' , after team supervisor Dr Valiya Hamza, an Indian-origin scientists who has been studying the region for over four decades.
According to Dr Hamza, the "thermal information" provided by Petrobras allowed his team of researchers to identify the movement of water 13,100ft under the Amazon River. He said that the flow of the underground river which follows a similar contour to the Amazon has been estimated at 3,000 cubic meters per second.
It is believed that the river originates from the region of Acre and reaches the sea at Foz do Amazonas, flowing through the basins of rivers Solimoes, Amazona and island Marajo.
"It is likely that this river is responsible for the low level of salinity in the waters around the mouth of the Amazon," the National Observatory said.
However, the researchers said the studies examining the underground river were still in their preliminary stage but they would confirm the subterranean flow by the end of 2014.
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