Thaindian News

August 3, 2010 (Pen Men at Work): A river which flows underneath the Black Sea has been uncovered by the researchers. The gushing water flow has all the characteristics of a river and is replete with waterfalls and rapids.

According to the reports published in the Daily Telegraph on Saturday, the river would have been regarded as the sixth largest one had it been on the surface of the land. It carries almost 350 times the volume of water that is found in the River Thames. The British researchers arrived at this conclusion after studying the volume of water flowing through it.

The river, though, carries saline water and flows along a channel under the Black Sea. The researchers belonging to the University of Leeds also found flood plains and river banks in this undersea river which is akin to those of the surface rivers.

Dr. Dan Parsons says that the water within the channel is much denser than the surrounding sea water presumably because of its higher salinity and also due to the heavy sediment present in it.

The discovery has a special significance as it could be a means of providing nutrients to the deep ocean life.

The undersea river has been formed by the spilling over of salt water from the Bosphorus Strait of the Mediterranean Sea into the Black Sea which contains water with less salinity.

It is this dense saline water that flows along the channel under the Black Sea. It is 115 feet in depth and 0.6 miles wide. The Daily Telegraph reported that this is the only active undersea river discovered so far. It has no name as yet.