How awesome is the Hamza River under the Amazon in South America?

The Amazon River in South America is the world's largest river with the largest flow and basin and the largest number of tributaries, with a total length of 6,400 kilometers and the second longest river in the world, which is 270 kilometers shorter than the longest river in the world (6,670 kilometers).

According to the research of scientist 10 of Geophysical Institute of National Bureau of Surveying and Mapping of Brazil, there is an underground river named Hamza River at the bottom of Amazon River, which is 200~400 kilometers wide and located at the bottom of sedimentary rocks with a depth of 2,000 ~ 4,000 meters underground.

From 1970s to 1980s, Petrobras drilled more than 200 wells in the Amazon region to explore oil resources. Scientists finally confirmed the existence of Hamza River by observing the data of these wells.

Like the Amazon River, the Hamza River originated in the Andes and the river flows in the same direction. Because the Hamza River is underground, the edge slope between South America and the Atlantic Ocean is relatively slow, and finally it flows into the Atlantic Ocean at a distance of 200 kilometers from the coast (the average depth of the Atlantic Ocean is 3627 meters).

Located in South America, the Andes is the longest mountain range in the world, with a total length of more than 8,900 kilometers and an average elevation of 3,660 meters. It is called the roof of South America and belongs to the Cordillera mountain system. If there were no Andes, there would be no Amazon and Hamza rivers. This is like the importance of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau to the Yangtze River and the Yellow River.

The Amazon River has10.5 million tributaries, and its water flow reaches 210.9 million cubic meters per second, which is about 7 times that of the Yangtze River in China, accounting for 20% of the world's river flow. The Amazon River basin has reached 6910.5 million square kilometers, equivalent to 40% of the total area of South America.

Hamza River is probably the largest underground river in the world, with a drainage area of 4 million square kilometers. Although smaller than the Amazon river, it is already very big in the underground river. Hamza River, as an underground river, has a flow rate of only 3% of that of Amazon River, about 6,300 cubic meters per second. Even so, its river flow is more than twice that of the Yellow River (257 1 m3 per second).

The Hamza River can achieve such a flow mainly because of its width, which is 200-400 kilometers wide, which is similar to the width of the Taiwan Province Strait. In addition, the Amazon region is located in the tropics, and water resources are already very rich. Otherwise, how could the Amazon rainforest and Amazon plain be bred?

Hamza River is more than 200 kilometers wide, won't it cause subsidence? That's because you don't know about underground rivers, so you have this question. The water in underground rivers mainly flows in underground rock formations and channels. Underground rock is as loose as sponge, which can not only store water, but also flow in it. The width of Hamza River is the distribution width of these river networks, which does not mean that more than 200 kilometers underground are all rivers of underground rivers. But the flow rate is very slow, only 10~ 100 meters per year, while the flow rate of Amazon River is 0. 1 ~ 2 meters per second.

There is also controversy about whether the Hamza River is an underground river. Some people think that this is just a huge water storage area under the Amazon. However, one thing is certain, that is, there is a water body with a lot of fresh water resources under the Amazon River basin.

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