Sediment column at the mouth of the Amazon River. Credit: NASA Posted on 07/08/2009 12:55:12 PM PDT by decimon
Sediment column at the mouth of the Amazon River. Credit: NASA
The Amazon River has been around for 11 million years ago and in its shape for the last 2.4 million years ago, according to a study on two boreholes drilled in proximity of the mouth of the Amazon River by Petrobras, the national oil company of Brazil.
Until recently the Amazon Fan, a sediment column of around 10 kilometres in thickness, proved a hard nut to crack, and scientific drilling expeditions such as Ocean Drilling Program could only reach a fraction of it. Recent exploration efforts by Petrobras lifted the veil, and sedimentological and paleontological analysis on samples from two boreholes, one of which 4.5 kilometres below sea floor, now permit an insight into the history of both Amazon River and Fan.
(Excerpt) Read more at scientificblogging.com ...
And the Amazon is now 11,000,010 years old.
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