Hamza (aquifer)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

As Hamza ( port. Rio Hamza ) is a suspected aquifer in Brazil Denoted at a depth of 4000 meters below the Amazon runs. Its discovery was announced in August 2011 and goes back to investigations by a Brazilian research group led by Valiya Mannathal Hamza , after whom the aquifer is named.

Course and meaning

The Hamza aquifer extends over a length of about 6000 kilometers deep beneath the Amazon and, similar to the Amazon, runs from west to east from the Peruvian Andes towards the Atlantic Ocean . The aquifer transports about 3900 cubic meters of water per second over a width of up to 400 kilometers , which corresponds to about 2% of the flow rate of the Amazon and represents a second important drainage system of the Amazon basin . The flow system is not a river in the usual sense, but is often referred to in a figurative sense. However, water transport takes place within porous rock layers around 4 kilometers below the earth's surface, and the flow speeds of a few meters per year are below the speeds of average glaciers . The water is described as salty , but it probably leads to a reduction in the salinity of the salty Atlantic in the estuary .

discovery

The Hamza aquifer was discovered by a research group at the Brazilian National Observatory who evaluated thermal data from 241 deep boreholes that had already been carried out by the Petrobras oil company in the 1970s and 1980s . The results suggest the slow water flow described. The findings were first presented in August 2011 at the 12th International Congress of the Brazilian Geophysical Society . The final confirmation for the existence of the aquifer in the form shown is not expected for a few years. The further importance of the drainage system, for example for ecological processes, must also be researched further.

criticism

The results were criticized by Jorge Figueiredo , a geologist from Petrobras . He rejected the thesis of a continuous aquifer and described the results as unscientific and explainable through other contexts. He also pointed out that the results have so far only been presented at a conference and have not yet been discussed in academia .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Daniel Lingenhöhl: Amazon has mighty twin in the underground. In: Spektrum.de . August 26, 2011. Retrieved February 28, 2012 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e Alok Jha: Underground river 'Rio Hamza' discovered 4km beneath the Amazon. In: The Guardian . August 26, 2011, accessed August 30, 2011 .
  3. ↑ a b c Richard Black: Subterranean Amazon river 'is not a river'. In: BBC . August 27, 2011, accessed August 30, 2011 .
  4. ↑ Chris Arsenault: 'Huge underground river' found below Amazon. In: Al Jazeera . August 28, 2011, accessed August 30, 2011 .