Rio Hamza river

A river flowing right beneath another river — yes, that is an undeniable truth. But there is absolutely no way you will be able to go fishing there and hence, don’t let your hopes fly high.

Deep below the great Amazon River is the huge subterranean river named Rio Hamza.

Length and width

Hamza is about 3700 miles long and flows west to east. The river is assumed to flow some 13,000 feet below the river Amazon. This astoundingly long river is even bigger that Amazon in terms of width which ranges between 200 and 400 kilometres as opposed to Amazon’s one and 100 kilometres.

The discovery

The evidence of the river’s existence was discovered by a group of researchers from Brazil National Observatory’s geophysics department. The group was led by Valiya Mannathal Hamza and hence, the river is named after him and its discovery was announced in 2011.

Water flow

Water in Amazon flows at a speed of five metres per second but in Hamza, it flows at a speed of less than 1 millimetre per hour. Computer simulations show that the groundwater flow is predominantly vertical to about 2,000 feet deep, but changes direction and becomes horizontal at greater depths.

Published in Dawn, Young World, February 20th, 2015