subterranean river

A subterranean river is a river that runs beneath the ground surface. These rivers can either be entirely natural, or a result of the deliberate installation of a culvert to channel a flow from the surface to underground, usually as a part of urban development.

To reverse this process is known as daylighting a stream and is a visible form of river restoration. One successful example is the Cheonggye Stream in the centre of Seoul.^[1]

Examples of subterranean rivers include:

• London's River Fleet
• Zenne flowing underground through Brussels
• the Dommel underneath 's-Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands
• The Mojave River in southern California
• Santa Fe River in northern Florida.
• Palawan in Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park on the island of Palawan, Philippines
• Son Trach river in Vietnam
• the Sac Actun system (named after the Mayan name of the larger of the two branches) is the result of a confirmed connection between two other rivers previously thought to be separate. Discovered by divers Robbie Schmittner and Steve Boagarts in January 2007, the full length is 153.6 kilometers long and a maximum depth of 72 meters underneath the Yucatán Peninsula.^[2]

Another notable example is the subterranean portion of the Nile River.

A flow somewhat similar to a subterranean river is a large body of moving water that exists in the Atlantic Ocean near the floor, part of the North Atlantic Current.^{[citation needed]}

See also

• Speleology
• Subterranean rivers of London
• Cromwell current, Submarine river

Notes and references

1. ^ Kirk (13 October 2005)
2. ^ (English) Divers Discover The Worlds Longest Underground River (Deutsche Presse-Agentur)

Bibliography

• Kirk, Donald. "Seoul peels back concrete to let a river run freely once again", World>Asia Pacific, The Christian Science Monitor, 2005-10-13. Retrieved on 2006-08-21. 

Donate to Wikimedia