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Earth Science

Evidence Points To Huge Underground River Beneath Amazon 116

Posted by timothy from the how-they-do-the-prime-shipping dept.
chill writes "Researchers at the department of geophysics of the Brazil National Observatory have showed evidence of the existence of an underground river that flows 13,000 feet beneath the Amazon. The newly-named Hamza is said to be 3,700 miles long, flowing 13,000 feet below the Amazon. Both rivers flow from west to east, but the Hamza flows at only a fraction of the speed of Amazon."
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Evidence Points To Huge Underground River Beneath Amazon More

Evidence Points To Huge Underground River Beneath Amazon

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  • No a river, it's called an Aquifer (Score:5, Informative)

    by thomasdz ( 178114 ) on Saturday August 27, 2011 @07:59AM (#37226896)

    Geesh.... the term "underground river" evokes an image of a continuous flow of only water perhaps going through a long cave or something... not water travelling through rock, also known as an "Aquifer"

    • +1 More Informative Than Vague Article

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by vortex0 ( 859250 )
      An aquifer does not flow, a river does. From TFA this mas of water has a flow and it also goes further to state that its direction is the same of the amazon river. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquifer [wikipedia.org]
      • Really? Because the Flroda aquifer (in both north and central/south that feeds into the everglades) flow towards the ocean, just like the rivers do. There are springs and seeps in the sea from it all over the coast.

    • not water travelling through rock, also known as an "Aquifer"

      And whatever you do, do NOT try to dig through it.

    • So blind Dinosaurs living in there out of the question then?

    • Aquifer is just the european name for it. We should be more sensitive and at least find an indigenous word to use. And perhaps have an argument over what native americans would have called it if they had the chance

      • Aquifer is just the european name for it. We should be more sensitive and at least find an indigenous word to use. And perhaps have an argument over what native americans would have called it if they had the chance

        Hamza's Lie, is that closer?

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Yes. this BBC article [bbc.co.uk] gives a more informative and balanced explanation.

      Even the evidence for unusual amounts of subsurface groundwater flow is equivocal. It looks like a rather ordinary aquifer.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by aliquis ( 678370 )

      Also 13,000 feet = 4 km beneath the Amazon.

      3,700 miles = 6,000 km long.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mrmeval ( 662166 )

      Who wants to go on an expedition to follow it back to the Great Underground Empire and see the mighty works of Lord Flathead?

  • Naming breaks ethical rules (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Dunbal ( 464142 ) * on Saturday August 27, 2011 @08:00AM (#37226900)

    As a scientist you're not supposed to name things after yourself or have your students name them after you.

    "The underground river is now named after Valiya Hamza, the scientist of Indian origin,who has been studying the Amazon region for more than 40 years. The discovery is part of the work of doctoral student Elizabeth Tavares Pimentel, under the guidance of Hamza."

    Another word for this river is, of course, a "water table".

    • Yeah, I got all excited about this until I looked at the flow rate. About the same as most aquifers. While it is an important discovery and it's mapping may turn out to have useful applications, it's not at all surprising. The planet isn't made of concrete (despite what New Yorkers think).

      But I don't think many people really have any sort of concept of what the subterranean world looks like so articles like this are useful. And I'm not sure that it's so bad to name it after Hamza. He seems like one of

      • *snip*(despite what New Yorkers think)*snip*

        Talk to someone upstate. Especially someone in or around the Adirondack Park.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by guises ( 2423402 )

          *snip*(despite what New Yorkers think)*snip*

          Talk to someone upstate

          Or... anyone. Not everyone is a brilliant geologist like the GP, but most people know that the world isn't made out of concrete. Even people in New York, who are obviously all drooling morons. Thank you for pointing that out GP.

      • Re:Naming breaks ethical rules (Score:4, Funny)

        by Alsee ( 515537 ) on Saturday August 27, 2011 @12:21PM (#37228370) Homepage

        The planet isn't made of concrete (despite what New Yorkers think).

        Christ! We are not IDIOTS.
        Stuff above ground like buildings and raised sidewalks are made of concrete. Any blind idiot knows the ground is made of asphalt.

        -

        • My bad. Sorry.

          • Don't appologize! New Yorkers deserve it -- they're so condescending to everyone else, yet get upset when someone makes a mild joke about them.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by Alsee ( 515537 )

              Perhaps you didn't get around to reading the second line of my post? (The one mentioning asphalt.) Either that or you're humor-blind. ColdWetDog's "apology" was a playful response to my comically feigned-indignation.

              they're so condescending to everyone else

              That's not true! We know we're not the only time zone on the planet! Most of us have been on a plane and everyone knows you have to adjust your watch three hours whenever you leave the city.

              -

    • > As a scientist you're not supposed to name things after yourself or have your students name them after you.

      What ethical rule? Is this in your institution's IRB materials?

      And why not? It's not like being forced to not put one's name on something by a committee is going to make one less of a jerk if one is a jerk.

    • > As a scientist you're not supposed to name things after yourself
      > or have your students name them after you.

      Why not? It's better than naming a planetoid after Mickey Mouse's dog.

      • Re:Naming breaks ethical rules (Score:5, Funny)

        by Dunbal ( 464142 ) * on Saturday August 27, 2011 @09:29AM (#37227380)
        You're wrong. The planetoid is named after a greek God. Which of course was named after Mickey Mouse's dog.

        • It's more named about Percival Lowell, the founder of the observatory. Thus the overlaid PL that is the symbol and the fact that the god the (then) planet was named for started with P and L.

          And of course, there was also the fact that Percival Lowell was the owner and trainer of the dog that acted in all those Mickey Mouse films as "Pluto".

      • > As a scientist you're not supposed to name things after yourself
        > or have your students name them after you.

        Why not? It's better than naming a planetoid after Mickey Mouse's dog.

        It sure is. [wikipedia.org]

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by EdIII ( 1114411 )

        Why you got to be dissing Pluto? He is a good dog. Occasionally gets caught humping Minnie's leg, but generally a good dog.

        Chill man.

    • "It didn't do Mr. Watt any harm."
          Dr. Malcom Taylor.

  • Better article (Score:5, Interesting)

    by bradley13 ( 1118935 ) on Saturday August 27, 2011 @08:05AM (#37226924) Homepage

    Here is a better article: http://www.sott.net/articles/show/234077-Underground-River-Rio-Hamza-Discovered-4km-Beneath-the-Amazon [sott.net]

    Flowing at a rate of 1mm/hour, this is more like a gigantic seepage of ground water. I suppose calling it a "river" gets them into the newspapers...

    • I was a bit surprised as well. This story has hit several of the social news sites, and from the headlines I was expecting some sort of freak underground tunnel caused by some interesting historical phenomenon. Then I saw the flow rate and tried to figure out how that made sense. Then I learned that it might not really be a river at all, at least not as a layman like me thinks of one.

      Aside: Also, thanks for linking to a site that isn't covered in Facebook-related junk. It seems like social networking links

    • I live over an underground river just as unlike a river as this, except nearer to the surface. Our well is over 100 feet deep, though. And it's horribly rusty.

    • Flowing at a rate of 1mm/hour, this is more like a gigantic seepage of ground water.

      You forget that I was present at an undersea, unexplained mass sponge migration.

  • when I see it.

  • One Question (Score:5, Funny)

    by Danieljury3 ( 1809634 ) on Saturday August 27, 2011 @08:06AM (#37226928)
    Is the water tessellated?
  • The rock band Styx has filed a trademark suit against...

  • Pretty wide! (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 27, 2011 @08:21AM (#37227018)

    The width is said to be 3700 miles long? Cool, how wide is the length said to be??

  • This must explain how they can ship so much merchandise so efficiently!

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by DeeEff ( 2370332 )

      I would argue the opposite. I don't think I've ever had an order on time, arguable that it's because of where I live, or what I order, but "we have to swim across a 3700 mile river underground" is somewhat better consolation than "the warehouse manufacturer apologizes for the delay, we are looking into figuring out what happened".

  • I tap the underground river for U and take 1 damage.

  • at which "drinking water safe" fraking is done?

    • If you're fraking your significant other, I doubt that'll do any damage to the water table, unless you produce volume like Peter "Two Quarts" North, in which case there's a slight risk of organic contamination.

      As for hydraulic fracturing, there is no such thing as "drinking-water-safe", just like there's no such thing as "clean coal". Cracks in the bedrock resulting from the frackage can propagate for thousands of feet above the well pipe, often unpredictably. That's kind of the point; the longer the crac

  • Reminds me of Jules Verne's "A Journey to the Center of the Earth".
  • Most people think water in rivers comes from snow and rain at the top of some mountain and just flows (Slashdot crowd is most likely not part of that "most people"). The reality is that the water comes 'up' from the ground into the river system after the precipitation over much much larger area http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/earthrivers.html [usgs.gov] . This is why environmentalist (and everyone else should) get pist when people bury and improperly dispose of stuff that is toxic - it's feeding ourselves waste not fit
  • Could someone explain what they mean when they say the width is 3,700 miles long...

    "The width of the Hamza is said to be 3,700 miles long..."

    I can understand the length of the river being 3,700 miles long, wouldn't the width be another figure?

    Is there some sort of "river nomenclature" I am missing?

    Maybe I just need more coffee...

  • And paddling upstream on this underground river it will lead us to the lost underground city, a city filled with gold, a city called ElDorado.

    No? Can we then have at least a movie about it? Or better yet: any investors willing to pay me, so I can go looking for it? (And then do a book, a documentary, and an action movie.) -I must admit "underground river" invokes more interesting connotations than "slow flowing aquifier"

  • Probably a good thing I wasn't there (Score:3)

    by Ethanol ( 176321 ) on Saturday August 27, 2011 @11:29AM (#37228068)

    'Cause I wouldn't have been able to resist the temptation to name it "Amazon Prime".

    • 'Cause I wouldn't have been able to resist the temptation to name it "Amazon Prime".

      If it were named Amazon Prime, wouldn't it be faster than the regular Amazon?.

  • So why are the values given feet and miles?

  • Water source for the folks to tap into???

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