Beneath the Black Sea: An Undersea River

In 2010, a tidal discovery was made: An impressive undersea river at the bottom of the Black Sea. This is a pinnacle in oceanic discovery as it could help explain how life can survive in the deep, away from nutrient-bound waters at a distance from land. Researchers have also said that it is the first time an underwater river had been glimpsed in such warm waters.

The discovery of the river, announced in August 2010, was made by scientists at the University of Leeds, UK, and is the first of its kind in the world. The undersea river stems from salty water spilling through the Bosphorus Strait from the Mediterranean Sea into the Black Sea, where the water has a lower salt content.

Underwater rivers are common near the poles, and are the result of ice formation. But this is the first time these processes have been discovered in subtropical regions. Various underwater rivers have been discovered in different spots around the globe, but this discovery was remarkable in that the river moves through warm waters. The discovery has laid the foundation to help scientists find out how underwater rivers function in a subtropical setting as previous studies have focused on underwater rivers in glacial environments – in much colder waters.

The Black Sea underwater river is fascinating because it cuts deep into the seafloor, much as rivers on dry ground wind through a landscape. As if that weren’t enough, this mind-boggling undersea river comes with its own trees and leaves flowing on the seabed, and even waterfalls! The underwater river is so large that if it were on land, it would be the world’s sixth largest in terms of the volume of water flowing through it. It is about 350 times greater than the River Thames and 10 times greater than Europe’s biggest river, the Rhine. The river was found to be 60 kilometres long, 35 metres deep and a kilometre wide, flowing at a speed of 6 kilometres per hour.

It contains features typical of surface rivers, such as riverbanks, floodplains, waterfalls and rapids. However, the underwater river moves in currents spinning in the opposite direction from those on land when rounding a bend. The river carries sediments along the sea floor and has a higher salinity than the surrounding water.

The discovery is expected to have significant implications for the study of marine biology, climate change, and geological formation. The ocean truly holds many fascinating mysteries!