By TCN News,
Kozhikode: The gigantic underground river discovered by the researchers in Brazil has been named after Valiya Mannathal Hamza, a native of Kozhikode in Kerala. Hamza led the research conducted by the department of geophysics in the Brazil National Observatory.
Hamza also found out that the Amazon rainforest has two drainage systems – the surface drainage through the Amazon river and the underwater one through the newly-found river named after him. The 6000-kilometres long underground river flows 13,000 feet below the Amazon, with a width ranging from 200 kms to 400 kms which far exceeds that of the Amazon with 1 to 100 kms width. However, the flow of water is not as fast as the Amazon.
Hamza [Photo Courtesy: onionlive.in]
Meanwhile, Mr Hamza reportedly said that studies on the underground river were still at an early stage and that more details could be confirmed only within a few years.
Hamza (70), son of late Koya Valiya Mannathal and Cheriya Ayisha Valiya Mannathal, hails from Kunnamangalam in Kozhikode. After his school education from Kunnamangalam, Hamza graduated in Physics from the Devagiri St Joseph’s College, Kozhikode, and post-graduated from the Victoria College, Palakkad. He joined the National Geophysical Research Institute in Hyderabad as Junior Scientific Assistant in 1963. Within a few years, he got the opportunity to go to the Ottawa University in Canada for research with scholarship. He then moved to the Sao Polo University in Brazil where he is serving as the head of the Geophysical and Astronomy Department.
Hamza has now settled in Rio de Janiero with his wife and three children. His wife is a Budhist from Japan who has migrated to Brazil, and is teaching in the Sao Polo University.