It's underground. It is about 6700 miles long (about as long as the Amazon) and much wider than the Amazon - up to 250 miles (Amazon - up to 60). I'm not sure what the "width" of a river is - I guess it is the width of all the side branches, not the width from bank to bank.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44343669/ns/technology_and_science-science
That article misses one important thing - the underground river does not flow in a tunnel. You can't drill a hole that is 2 miles deep, put on your diving gear and swim in the river. The way this river flows is through permeable rock formations (like sand) - like water through a foam sponge.
Note the speed of the flow - it is basically a crawl - no more than 330 ft per year. Very slow flow but another thing not mentioned in that article is that it creates a vast area of low salinity when it reaches and discharches into the Atlantic Ocean. An area that I guess is the same area where the Amazon discharges too. That low salinity environment (mixed sea and freshwater) is a place where unique plants and animals have adapted to live.
I guess there are no interesting fish/plants in the huge underground river. As we all know the Amazon itslelf has enough undiscovered species anyway. Also - water production from the underground river is not really justified because of the abundance of water at or close to the surface in the region. The discovery suggests that there maybe more such underground bodies of water around the world.
--Nikolay
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44343669/ns/technology_and_science-science
That article misses one important thing - the underground river does not flow in a tunnel. You can't drill a hole that is 2 miles deep, put on your diving gear and swim in the river. The way this river flows is through permeable rock formations (like sand) - like water through a foam sponge.
Note the speed of the flow - it is basically a crawl - no more than 330 ft per year. Very slow flow but another thing not mentioned in that article is that it creates a vast area of low salinity when it reaches and discharches into the Atlantic Ocean. An area that I guess is the same area where the Amazon discharges too. That low salinity environment (mixed sea and freshwater) is a place where unique plants and animals have adapted to live.
I guess there are no interesting fish/plants in the huge underground river. As we all know the Amazon itslelf has enough undiscovered species anyway. Also - water production from the underground river is not really justified because of the abundance of water at or close to the surface in the region. The discovery suggests that there maybe more such underground bodies of water around the world.
--Nikolay
