A
river so hot that it has defied explanation and it can cook anything
within minutes has been discovered deep in the Amazon forest .
A mysterious, four-mile long river, deep in the heart of the Amazon, is so hot that it boils.
The river has long been a legend in Peru, but when geoscientist,
Andrés Ruzo's heard about it, he thought such a phenomenon was
impossible. He believed that it would require a huge amount of
geothermal heat to boil even a small river, and the Amazon basin is far
from any active volcanoes.
But then, Ruzo saw the legendary boiling river with his own
eyes. Ruzo first heard about the Mayantuyacu river when his grandfather
told him a story about how Spanish conquistadors killed the last Inca
emperor.
The story goes that after the murder, the Spanish conquistador
headed into the Amazon rainforest in search of gold. When they returned,
the men spoke of a terrifying experience that involved poisoned water,
man-eating snakes and a river that boils from below. Twelve years later,
at a family dinner, Ruzo heard the river mentioned again when his aunt
said that she had visited it.
As a PhD student in geophysics at Southern Methodist University, Ruzo wanted to find the river for himself.
'I began asking that question. Could the boiling river exist?', Ruzo said in TED Talk.
'I asked colleagues from universities, the government, oil, gas and mining companies, and the answer was a unanimous no.
'And this makes sense. You see, boiling rivers do exist in the
world, but they're generally associated with volcanoes. You need a
powerful heat source to produce such a large geothermal manifestation.'
Pictured on theright is a shaman that guards the river
Despite his skepticism, Runzo found himself hiking into the jungle
in 2011, guided by his aunt, far from the he nearest volcanic center.
He said he was mentally preparing to behold the legendary 'warm
stream of the Amazon - but what he saw was very different. Runzo
discovered a four mile 'boiling river' in the sacred geothermal healing
site of the Asháninka people in Mayantuyacu.
At its widest, it is 82ft (25 metres), and around 20ft (six metres)
deep. The water is hot enough to brew tea, according to a report in
Gizmodo, and in some parts, it boils over.
'Dipping my hand into the river would give me third-degree burns in less than half a second,' Ruzo told Ted.com 'Falling in could easily kill me.'
The river boils because of fault-fed hot springs.
This frog fell into the water and it did not survive it
Parts of the river are so hot that any animals that falls in boils instantly.
'I've seen all sorts of animals fall in, and what's shocking to me, is the process is pretty much the same,' said Runzo.
'So they fall in and the first thing to go are the eyes. Eyes,
apparently, cook very quickly. They turn this milky-white color. The
stream is carrying them.
'They're trying to swim out, but their meat is cooking on the
bone because it's so hot. So they're losing power, losing power, until
finally they get to a point where hot water goes into their mouths and
they cook from the inside out.'
For some reason, the river has escaped scientific scrutiny. But Ruzo is on a mission to change that.
He has published a book, 'The Boiling River: Adventure and
Discovery in the Amazon,' that publicises the river for the first time.
Ruzo's is now trying to save the boiling river. The surrounding
forest has been destroyed by logging practices, and if action isn't
taken, the area could vanish entirely.
'In the middle of my PhD, I realized, this river is a natural wonder,' Ruzo said. 'And it's not going to be around unless we do something about it.'
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