Shanay-Timpishka: The Boiling River 700km from Any Volcano
Shanay-Timpishka, a boiling hot river 700km from the nearest active volcano
I discovered that the Shanay-Timpishka river in the Peruvian Amazon boils without nearby volcanoes. Instead of magma, deep groundwater heats up through unique geological faults, creating a six-kilometre stretch of scalding water. This non-volcanic geothermal feature hosts unique extremophile microbes and challenges our standard understanding of Earth's heat sources.
By every conventional understanding of how the Earth heats water, this river should not exist.
- mrb
It's located here for those wondering:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/js7miFSkRBa86t15A?g_st=ac
If you click on the little resorts/hotels/towns around the area, there are many pictures and videos of steam rising of this little river. It's obvious the area is well frequented by tourists. Not as remote as I thought it would be.
- glerk
> there is essentially no scientific explanation for its existence
The heat comes from Yacumama, a great serpent-spirit called the Mother of the Waters.
- cossatot
>The system is what geologists call a fault-controlled non-volcanic geothermal feature.
These are quite common. Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas is a notable example. Most of the hot springs in Idaho are on fault lines, as are the hot springs along Highway 395 on the east side of the Sierras (though there is Quaternary volcanism in the region, it's not the source of heat), and through much of the rest of the Intermountain West.
This site seems to be unique for both the volume and the temperature of water, though. I'd be curious to know how far away the water originated, and how deep it goes before being heated. The crust in the area is not known to be particularly hot, as far as I know, unlike the Basin and Range of the western US where tectonic stretching and thinning of the crust has brought the hot mantle much closer to the surface and increased the geothermal gradient.
- Avicebron
> fault-controlled non-volcanic geothermal feature.
Also known as a great serpent-spirit known as "Mother of the Waters"
- gitpusher
> What he found is one of the strangest hydrothermal features on Earth. Not because it is extremely hot
Neat! I wonder what's so strange about it besides the heat
> because there is essentially no scientific explanation for its existence.
Wait whut