If you thought rivers are just water
flowing from point A to point B, think
again.
Some rivers shimmer like rainbows.
Others boil like kettles. One flows
backwards. Another is buried deep under
sea ice. And one is legally a person.
These rivers are so beautifully unique.
It's as if they've been painted onto our
planet from mother nature's imagination.
They are full of astonishing stories,
jam-packed with mystery, and offer a
glimpse of what Earth is capable of.
I'm James Stewart, and you're watching
Astramm Earth.
In this video, much like rivers
themselves, we'll meander around the
world from jungles to glaciers,
deserts to cities to find the strangest,
wildest, most mindbending rivers on
Earth.
These aren't just rivers. These are
nature's loopholes.
Our
journey begins with the meeting of the
waters in Manouse, Brazil.
You may have seen the viral videos of
two starkly different color groups of
water meeting, creating a dividing line
that would look striking in any
painting.
Here, the Rioenegro River and parts of
the Amazon River, also known as the Rio
Solomo, come together to form something
that looks like it shouldn't be able to
happen.
You would expect two rivers that meet to
blend into one another, but that is not
the case here. Robert Meat from the US
Geological Survey described the contrast
perfectly. One is a light brown cafe
Olay color converging with black
teacololed water to produce the greatest
hydraologic spectacle on the planet.
What we are seeing here is a volume of
water at least a dozen times greater
than the total of the water falling over
the Niagara Iguasu and Victoria Falls
combined.
So, how is it that two forces this
powerful collide in such a picturesque
manner? Well, the best part is they
don't really collide at all. They flow
together with this separation intact for
around 6 km.
This fusion of light brown and black
waters is so extreme it can be seen from
space, resembling the famous yin and
yang symbol from such a height.
The reason this happens is down to the
chemical and physical makeup of each
river. The Rioenegro, as the name
implies, is a river of water that looks
nearly black. It's actually the world's
largest black water river and the
largest tributary of the Amazon.
Despite its dark appearance, however, it
is actually relatively clear of
sediment, but has obtained its teaike
color from large quantities of plant
matter collected from the Colombian
hills and interior jungles on its
journey to Manouse.
So deceptively clear is this river that
visibility sometimes exceeds 9 m. And
black rivers are often considered some
of the cleanest natural waters in the
world. The water here has an average
temperature of 28° C, much warmer than
the solenoise, but flows much more
slowly at around 2 km per hour.
The creamy Amazon, on the other hand,
collects large amounts of sediments as
it flows down from the Andes mountains.
As such, it's significantly denser than
the clear, organic rich waters of the
Rioenegro, further adding in the ability
for these two cousins to remain
separate. The water is quite a bit
cooler, too, at 22° C and much faster
than the Rioenegro, flowing at around 6
km per hour.
All of these things, the difference in
composition, acidity, flow rate,
temperature, and density, prevent the
two from mixing when they initially
meet. Eventually, though, the inevitable
does finally happen, and two become one.
As the water encounters obstacles that
form heavy eddies, the two rivers are
reluctantly drawn together. This
blending begins as the rivers flow
downstream, aided by turbulence, wind,
and the meanders of the river channel.
Seasonal changes in water flow and
sediment load can influence the mixing
process, which can take several
kilometers to complete.
Once mixed, the combined waters flow
eastward as the Amazon River, the
largest river by discharge volume in the
world.
209,000
cubic meters per second goes into the
Atlantic Ocean. To give you some
context, the Congo River, the world's
second largest, discharges around five
times less than that.
An equally dramatic confluence can be
found on the other side of the planet,
too. Upstream from Lake Geneva in
Switzerland, something wonderful happens
where two rivers from two countries
collide.
Where the Ron and Av rivers meet, a
beautiful turquoise river charges into a
murky waterway set against the backdrop
of elegant green foliage with the Geneva
skyline poking through in the distance.
As with Brazil, this intriguing contrast
happens largely because of what the
rivers have carried along during their
respective voyages. The Av River is one
of the most powerful rivers in France
and it moves so quickly that it stirs up
sand and mud which give it that milky
white hue.
The Ron River on the other hand starts
in the Swiss Alps and eventually ends up
in the Mediterranean. It's the only
major river that flows directly to the
Mediterranean Sea and is thoroughly
alpine in character and color. In this
case, the two rivers blend into one
another at a far more visible point. So
visible it even has a name, Ljong Shaw,
a location on the western side of
Geneva.
Similarly to Manau, this confluence is
also visible from space as the colors of
the sediment laden avky blue ran show
off their vibrancy from planet Earth.
Sticking with the theme of color, it's
time to move on from these gray scales
to something a little more vibrant,
we head to South America for a rainbow
colored waterway like no other. Every
year in the remote wilderness of
Colombia, an ordinary river erupts into
a spectacular rainbow colored explosion.
Located 170 km south of Bogatar, three
diverse ecosystems,
the Rocky Andes mountains, the sweeping
Lanos plains, and the lush Amazonian
jungle converge in the remote wilderness
of central Columbombia's Sierra de la
Macarena National Park. Located within a
biodiverse and beautiful region deep in
the southern fringes of Guajabero River
lies Cano Cristales.
This extraordinary natural wonder
stretches for over a 100 kilometers and
consists of crystalclear waterfalls,
rivers, and streams that burst into a
vibrant array of colors for several
months every year, creating a spectacle
that surpasses even the most imaginative
expectations.
Canon Cthalees is often called the river
of five colors or the liquid rainbow.
And according to local legend, it
escaped paradise to flow through the
earth, which when you look at it feels
like a fitting tribute. The vibrant
kaleidoscope of colors in the river
typically visible from June to November
are not due to magic or supernatural
events despite their ethereal
appearance.
Instead, this striking phenomenon
originates from a distinctly biological
process occurring within the river
itself.
It's all down to a rare endemic plant
called macarania clavageda,
a species of the riverweed family,
podostamaci,
covering the canor cryfales rocky
riverbed.
For much of the year, this mosslike
growth appears in a muted green hue,
nonchalant and unremarkable. But when
the rainy season returns and the water
level rises and just the right amount of
sunlight penetrates the river's floor,
the plant erupts in a vibrant spectrum
of purples, fuches, reds, yellows, and
greens. This display blankets the
riverbed and in doing so creates one of
the most unique ecosystems the world is
capable of dreaming up.
Want more magic? Well, it gets better
still because if you're fortunate enough
to visit this river, you will never see
the same color variation more than once.
This unique ecosystem transforms with
each passing season. Much like the
changing colors of autumn leaves, the
growth and hue of the macarania claviera
plants within the river are dictated by
the year's rainfall, temperature, and
sunlight. Consequently, a section of the
river that might be a vibrant crimson
one year could display bright green or
yellow tones the following year.
It's not just the plants that give this
river its rainbow hues, however. The
stones where this aquatic plant takes
root are likely the crucial factor
enabling its survival and ability to
flourish. Cano Cristales travels a top
the Gayana shield, a 1.7 billionyear-old
rock formation that stretches across
much of northeast and South America and
is among the oldest geological
formations on the planet. Once ancient
rivers deposited sediment, this area
became exceptionally rich in phosphorus,
iron, quartz, and other minerals. This
mineralrich bedrock now dips below
ground and reappears in central
Colombia,
uniquely providing the ideal habitat for
macarania clavagera.
Perhaps the most intriguing part about
this majestic rainbow of color is that
it remains largely unknown to most
Colombians. That is until quite
recently. For much of the 20th century,
ongoing conflict between the government,
drug traffickers, and the local militia
made this remote wilderness extremely
dangerous, leading to its closure to the
public from 1989 to 2009.
However, in 1989, Colombian journalist
Andreas Herodado Garcia bravely ventured
through the gorilla held jungle with a
camera. Reportedly hiding from rebels in
a peasants's home, he reached the
vibrant river and captured its beauty on
film, thus introducing this natural
wonder to Colombia and the entire world.
He told LTMO newspaper at the time that
it was the most beautiful river in the
world. And he may well be right.
Today, the area is free from militia and
thousands flock to this river on a daily
basis. But the color of our next river
should be enough warning not to get too
close.
For tens of miles in southwestern Spain,
there's a river that runs a remarkable
shade of red and is so extraterrestrial
it may even offer clues to life on Mars.
From the Sierra Mareno Mountains in
Andalucia, you wouldn't notice anything
unusual about the Riointo River. It's
fairly unremarkable.
But over a 50 km stretch near the town
of Nabla, an hour's drive west of
Seville, this seemingly ordinary
waterway transforms into a surreal
orangish, a rust red hue that looks like
it was ripped from a Martian sci-fi
film. Something Darth Vader himself
would be proud of. The Rio Tinto, or
stained river in Spanish, owes its
unusual characteristics to the sulfide
ore deposits prevalent in its region, a
geological legacy of ancient volcanic
activity.
Over time, the exposure of metals within
these deposits to water and oxygen has
resulted in acidic runoff contaminating
local waterways.
This acidic environment, though
detrimental to most life forms,
paradoxically fosters thriving colonies
of sulfide consuming bacteria and other
extreophiles, which further acidify the
river. The distinctive reddish color of
the riotinto is a consequence of these
organisms producing feric iron, a
rustlike substance.
Chemical weathering and bacterial
activity have significantly lowered the
Riointo's pH to an average of two.
Similar to vinegar, this natural
acidification has likely been
intensified by millennia of mining.
Humans have sporadically mined the area
for nearly 5,000 years, and the region
is known among archaeologists as a key
site during the copper and bronze ages.
Even today, the digging for copper and
other minerals continues after having
been temporarily decommissioned in 2001.
The result is increased exposure to
sulfide ore, making the river's water
highly acidic and giving it that
devilish tone.
Interest in the river stretches right up
to the present day, with astrobiologists
especially interested in the Riotinto
due to its soil similarities to Martian
terrain. The presence of iron and
potassium rich sulfate mineral jarite
common around the river and on Mars is
particularly notable given that jarite
and other minerals in this Spanish
region often show signs of bacterial
activity. Scientists believe studying
extreophiles inhabiting the Riointo
could provide insight into searching for
evidence of life on Mars. We'll leave
that to the main Astramm channel to
investigate because we're sticking to
our red theme and heading to Antarctica.
There we find a crimson waterfall forged
from a weird quirk of geocchemistry.
It looks like the scene of a heinous
crime. Blood red splattering set against
the bright white Antarctic ice makes for
gruesome, if not compulsive viewing on
the surface. But like all good crime
scenes, it's what's buried deep below
that is most compelling. It appears as
though the Taylor Glacia in East
Antarctica is badly wounded as thick red
liquid pulses out of it, creating what
is known as the blood falls.
However, deep below the surface inside
the glacia, things aren't as gruesome as
they appear above. In fact, they're
quite beautiful. The glacia gets its
name from geographer and explorer Thomas
Griffith Taylor, who first documented
the area in 1911,
giving his name both to the glacier he
found spewing out red water and to
Taylor Valley into which the glacier
flows. Taylor also gave us the reason as
to why the water ran red. It was due to
red algae, he mused. To stick to our
crime analogy, this case still had many
suspects and lines of questioning to
pursue after its discovery. Where did
that water come from? And was red algae
really to blame for its bold coloration?
The questions remained for nearly a
century until a new study in the Journal
of Glaciology finally provided some
answers.
Imaging from underneath the glacia
helped solve the mystery, revealing a
complex network of subglacial rivers and
a subglacial lake below the glacier.
That in itself was a pretty mind-blowing
thing to uncover. But what's more is
those rivers were all filled with brine
high in iron. The brine appears to have
been almost injected into the ice and
force up through cracks created by
immense pressure over time. The brine
that falls through the cracks, loaded
with that iron, reacts with oxygen in
the air when the water emerges from the
glacier, staining it a bloody crimson
color and forming the blood falls.
And so geocchemistry solves the mystery.
But the revelations don't stop there.
What makes this case especially
interesting is how the water flows.
Surely in Antarctica, a flowing river
shouldn't be possible, right? How does
it not just freeze instantly? Well, the
answer lies in the properties of brine
itself because the team discovered that
the lake under the glacier had an
unusually salty consistency. Now,
because salt water has a lower freezing
point than the melt water from the
glacier itself and releases heat as it
freezes, it actually melts the ice,
enabling the rivers to flow and the
blood falls to erupt from them. As such,
this actually makes the Taylor Glacier
the coldest glacia on Earth to feature
constantly flowing water. That's
according to Erin Petit, a professor in
the College of Earth, Ocean, and
Atmospheric Sciences at Oregon State
University, which is pretty insane.
As we leave one of the coldest rivers in
the world, our next river could not be
more different. Imagine a river so hot
it could melt human flesh.
Imagine
hearing stories of a river so deadly
that it boiled like a pan on a stove and
the only clues to its whereabouts were
huge plumes of steam bellowing into the
Peruvian skies. The Boiling River, also
known as the Sha Tempishka, is part of a
tributary in East central Peru that
connects to the mighty Amazon River. To
many locals, it was the stuff of legend,
capturing the imagination of a nation
and perking the ears of a young man
called Andreas Rouso, who was captivated
by the stories of a boiling river
somewhere in his homeland.
Years later, in 2011, that young man
followed his dreams and became a
geocientist, spending much of his time
working on a thermal map of Peru. While
some people search for buried treasure,
for Rouso the prize was something
greater. The location of the mysterious
boiling river. Documenting the journey
in National Geographic, Rouso described
traveling 2 hours by car from Pucalpa,
the largest city in the central Peruvian
Amazon, followed by 30 to 40 minutes in
a motorized canoe, followed by more than
an hour of hiking just to get to where
he thought the boiling river must be.
All of this hard work led him to a
remote patch of the Amazon populated
only by exotic whitethroatated tucans.
jaguars and indigenous tribes with a
rich shamanic culture to see if the myth
was true.
After years of hard work, research,
searching, and adventures, his patience
was rewarded.
There, amid the dense central Peruvian
Amazon, over 400 miles from the nearest
volcano, was his prize, the boiling
river. a flowing fourmile long river as
wide as a twolane road and up to 16 feet
deep. But most startling of all was its
temperature, averaging 85°
C. Hot enough to inflict serious injury
and hot enough to cook a small animal in
seconds. Local communities were likely
more than aware of the thermal river for
a long time, but until 2011, it remained
unstudied by scientists. In uncovering
the river itself, Russo also uncovered
its geothermal secrets, finding what is
believed to be one of the world's
largest thermal rivers, made
particularly unique because its heat
source is not volcanic activity.
Typically, warm waters like this are
associated with geothermal hot springs
powered by underground volcanic
activity. Yet, the Amazon rainforest is
marked by a clear lack of volcanoes. So,
where does that heat come from? This
weird geothermal anomaly is over 700 km
away from the nearest active volcanic
center in the middle of a sedimentary
basin. So, what's the secret? The
boiling river gets its heat from
faultfed hot springs.
The key is what's happening deep below
the river where that water sinks down
deep. Whilst underground, it absorbs
large quantities of heat from the earth
and then is pushed back up towards the
surface where it shoots through faults
and cracks in the earth's surface
creating a boiling hot river in the
middle of the Peruvian jungle.
In fact, this is so unique, Russo
believes there's no other thermal river
of this magnitude
anywhere else on Earth.
Each river on this list might be weird,
but each one or two or three always
flows in one direction, even the boiling
one. So, what about a river that changes
direction twice a year?
For that we have to head to Cambodia to
find a river that flows both ways.
Cambodia is located on the fishrich
Mikong Delta and its capital P nonpen is
in the rather unique position of sitting
right at the confluence of the Mikong
and the Tonlay Sap rivers. The latter
river acts as a lifeline for over a
million Cambodians who get their food
from and make a living off Southeast
Asia's largest fresh body of water. If
being the most productive inland fishing
river on the planet wasn't impressive
enough, the Tomap River is also one of
the world's only waterways which runs in
both directions. Yes, you heard me
right. Its flow of water quite literally
turns around and reverses every six
months. This incredible feat causes the
lake to swell by up to five times its
size between the wet and dry seasons.
And it's those seasons which lead to
this peculiar phenomenon. So much of
life in Southeast Asia is dictated by
the monsoon season which brings winds
from the southwest every year. Heralding
the start of the rainy season roughly
between May and October. This huge
influx of water causes the infamous
Mikong River to swell so much that the
Tonlay Sap River is actually forced to
flow backward. It is pushed back
northward away from the sea as the
mighty Mikong dominates with its newly
acquired water in a very one-sided
tussle. The expanse of the Mikong comes
at the cost of the Tonlay sap which
retreats backwards and becomes the only
river in the world. Therefore, that goes
both ways. By October, as the monsoon
ceases, the flow in the Meong finally
begins to lose its power as its waters
make their way through the delta into
the sea and it begins to fall. This
reduction in water finally takes the
pressure off the Tom Sap River and it
reverses its flow once again.
But there's no reversing or backing out
of this next river. It might be the most
contentious on this entire list. In a
video about the world's weirdest rivers,
there are some that would argue a river
that has legal personhood, i.e. the same
legal rights as humans isn't weird at
all and should actually be the norm.
Others might disagree entirely and find
this concept perplexing for something
that is just a body of water.
Either way, I'll let you decide what you
think in the comments whilst we visit
the wonderful Wanganui River in New
Zealand.
The Wanganui River is a vital 290 km
waterway in New Zealand's North Island.
Originating on Mount Tongerro's
northwestern slopes, it flows through
verdant hills and mountains before
reaching the Tasman Sea. In 2017, the
Wanganui River became the first river in
the world to be granted legal personhood
through the Tawa Tupua Act.
This legislation recognizes the river as
an indivisible and living hole,
reflecting Mari beliefs that sees the
river as an ancestor. The law
essentially establishes the river's
rights, powers, duties, and liabilities,
making them equivalent to those of a
legal person. The decision sent waves
across the globe. The native Wanganoui
tribes have long nurtured a deep
connection with the waterway. American
law professor Christopher D. Stone
argued in his book, Should Trees Have
Standing, for the independent
recognition of environmental interests
separate from human concerns. Drawing
inspiration from his work, Mauy scholars
James Morris and Justinta Ruru argued in
giving voice to rivers for the legal
personhood of New Zealand waterways.
This concept has precedent in New
Zealand where Touera National Park and
Mount Tanaki, a volcano sacred to the
Maui, were also granted legal
personhood. The 2017 decision which
recognized the Wanganui River as a legal
person, proved particularly impactful,
blazing a trail for similar decisions
across the world, granting legal rights
to the Ganges and Yamuna rivers in India
and all rivers in Bangladesh. Although
the Indian ruling was later reversed,
things get pretty murky when it comes to
water quality and damage, especially
given that now that legally constitutes
an attack against the community, too.
Despite New Zealand's clean green image,
like pretty much every other place on
Earth, reports indicate significant
water quality problems in many of its
rivers. Data from the National Institute
of Water and Atmospheric Research
reveals frequent and severe
contamination of the lower Wang Ganui
River with fecal bacteria and fine
sediment stemming from extensive farming
on its steep slopes and those of its
tributaries. The 1970s saw the
implementation of hydro power on the
Wanganui River too, a scheme whose
continued operation is reliant on the
now legally protected water. While the
power company that runs the hydro power
station only utilizes 7% of the river's
total flow, it generates nearly 4% of
New Zealand's power. Under this new
legislation, however, for the indigenous
tribes who hold the Wangani River
sacred, this water diversion inflicts
environmental, cultural, and spiritual
harm, and they strongly oppose the
extraction of their river's water.
It becomes confusing when although this
new legislation grants the river certain
rights, it does not override existing
laws, including the consent allowing the
hydro power company to divert water for
hydroelectric power until 2039.
This highlights the ongoing tension
between renewable energy generation and
the environmental and cultural
preservation of a significant natural
resource.
It is a delicate balance. Let us know in
the comments what you think about
natural features like rivers being
granted legal personhood. Do you think
this is a positive thing or does it
create more problems?
I wanted to finish up with a river so
weird that a it doesn't have a name and
b it's in a place I wrongly assumed was
incapable of even having one. Imagine a
river so massive it stretches longer
than the river temps, yet it's
completely concealed beneath piles of
Antarctic ice.
Scientists from Imperial College London
have unveiled a subglacial river system
beneath the Antarctic ice sheet,
draining an area comparable in size to
Germany and France combined.
In 2022, a 460 km long river was found
hidden beneath the ice flowing in to the
Wed Sea. Excitingly, it may be the key
to unlocking even more, says Martin
Sigot at Imperial College London, who
was part of the team that found the
river. Using computer models and
realworld data, scientists discover the
vast branching river systems hidden
beneath the ice in Antarctica. These
systems carry huge amounts of fresh
water around 24 cubic meters per second
in one of the systems at very high
pressure.
The river isn't just there to look nice
and for us to marvel at. It actually
plays a vital role in the movement of
the ice above it. The high pressure of
the water causes the ice on the surface
to flow faster. When these rivers exit
the ice sheets, they dump large volumes
of water into the ocean, which appears
to cause significant melting of the ice
shelves from below. Ice shelves are
crucial for holding back the main ice
sheet. Even small changes in these
underground channels can affect the
water pressure and depth in the
surrounding areas up to 100 km away.
This means that changes far inland can
also impact coastal ice, too. In short,
the hidden rivers under Antarctica are
super important for ice flow and
melting, and we need to understand them
better to predict future sea level rise
accurately. There are also potential
feedback loops that would accelerate ice
loss. For example, if the ice starts to
flow faster as water accumulates at the
base, then this will increase friction
where the ice runs over dry land, which
could increase the amount of basil
melting and water produced. This
discovery for a river still yet to be
named is likely the first of many more
and could prove vital in understanding
our changing planet in the future.
From rivers that boil, rainbow
explosions of color, and even a river
that has the same legal rights as you.
Hopefully, we've shown that there's far
more to rivers than just a route to the
ocean. They challenge our science, echo
ancient beliefs, and remind us that
Earth is far more magical and mysterious
than we often realize. Were any of these
rivers new to you? I squeeze as many as
I could in, but please let me know if
there's one that you'd like to have seen
included here. And if you're screaming
at the screen saying, "Under rivers, by
the way," I hear you. Actually, we love
underwater rivers so much, we've already
made an entire video about brine pools,
which you can check out on the channel.
I look forward to your suggestions, and
I hope that the next time you see a
river, you don't just ask where it goes,
you ask what secrets it might be hiding.