37 Mile Long River Discovered Under the Black Sea

A 37 mile longer ‘underwater river’ has been discovered by a team of scientists from the University of Leeds. The current, which is on the bed of the Black Sea, has carved out a channel in the sea bed and is up to 115ft deep. If the as yet unnamed current was on land it would be the world’s sixth largest river in terms of volume of water.

3D radar image of the undersea river

The scientists explored the river using a robotic submarine and found that it has rapids and waterfalls like a normal river. The current contains more salt and carries sediment with it so the water in the ‘river’ is denser than the sea which surrounds it.

“The water in the channels is denser than the surrounding seawater because it has higher salinity and is carrying so much sediment. It flows down the sea shelf and out into the abyssal plain much like a river on land. The abyssal plains of our oceans are like the deserts of the marine world, but these channels can deliver nutrients and ingredients needed for life out over these deserts. This means they could be vitally important, like arteries providing life to the deep ocean.”  – Dr Dan Parsons

The water begins in the Bosphorus Strait in the Mediterranean and flows into the less dense water of the Black Sea. The river has currents 350 times greater than those of the River Thames which have carved a channel with 115 foot high banks. The channel is only just over half a mile wide but carries 22,000 cubic metres of water a second. This is 10 times more than Europe’s largest river the Rhine.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Robotic submarine records flow of undersea river (holykaw.alltop.com)
• Rare dark jellyfish showing up in San Diego Bay (sfgate.com)
• Undersea River DISCOVERED In Black Sea In Eastern Europe (huffingtonpost.com)

Be Sociable, Share!

•