Massive river flowing beneath Amazon discovered

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 Daily Mail reported.

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 Solimoes,Amazona and 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 in a statement.

“The Amazon region has two discharge fluid systems: the surface drainage [through the Amazon River… and the flow of groundwater through the deep sedimentary layers.”

However,the researchers said the studies examining the underground river were still in their preliminary stage but they would be able to confirm the subterranean flow by the end of 2014.

The findings were presented recently at a meeting of the Brazilian Geophysical Society in Rio de Janeiro.