Dr Valiya Hamza and the Hamza River
Dr Valiya Hamza is an Indian-origin scientists who has been studying the mighty Amazon River region for over four decades.
- Amazon, as we know is the second longest river in the world and by far the largest by water flow with largest drainage basin in the world, about 7,050,000 square kilometres, that accounts for approximately one-fifth of the world’s total river flow.
- Dr Valiya Hamza from the Brazil’s National Observatory is leading a team that has recently discovered a huge underground river which they believe is flowing some 13,000 feet beneath the mighty Amazon River in Brazil.
- This underground 6000 kilometre long river has been now named after Dr Valiya Hamza as Hamza River. The scientists believe that this subterranean river is about 6,000km long, about the same length as the Amazon on the surface.
The Hamza was discovered using thermal data collected from 241 inactive oil wells in the area, drilled in the 1970s and 1980s, by the Petrobras oil company. Calculations from these data showed that a larger flow should exist. Direct observation of water movement at a very low rate can be difficult. The speed of flow is slower than that of an average glacier, and Dr. Hamza himself says that the team uses the term ‘river’ in a general sense, not in the conventional sense.
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Month: Current Affairs - November, 2011