Scientists Discover Amazon River Is 11 Million Years Old

Researchers at the University of Liverpool have discovered that the Amazon River, and its transcontinental drainage, is around 11 million years old and took its present shape about 2.4 million years ago.

University of Liverpool researchers, in collaboration with the University of Amsterdam and Petrobras, the national oil company of Brazil, analyzed sedimentary material taken from two boreholes near the mouth of the river to calculate the age of the Amazon river and the Amazon deep sea fan.

Prior to this study the exact age of the Amazon, one of the two largest rivers in the world, was not known. Until recently the Amazon Fan, a submarine sediment column around 10km thick, had proven difficult to penetrate, the researchers note. New exploration efforts by Petrobas, however, have lea to two new boreholes being drilled near the mouth of the Amazon -- one 2.5 miles below sea level -- which resulted in new sedimentological and paleontological analysis of samples from the river sediment.

"River sediment records provide a unique insight into the palaeoclimate and geography of the hinterland," says Jorge Figueiredo from the University's Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences.

"This new research has large implications for our understanding of South American paleogeography and the evolution of aquatic organisms in Amazonia and on the Atlantic coast. The origin of the Amazon river is a defining moment: a new ecosystem came into being at the same time as the uplifting Andes formed a geographic divide."

The study was published in the scientific journal, Geology.

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Satellite Tracking Will Help Answer Questions About Penguin Travels

You could understand if a half-dozen Magellanic penguins developed a "big bird is watching" phobia before this month is over, but the surveillance really will be for their own good.

University of Washington scientists will attach satellite tracking devices to the backs of six penguins that have been treated at two centers in northern Argentina after their feathers were fouled with oil. The birds will be released into the Atlantic Ocean and their movements traced using satellites and the Internet.

The idea is to plug a critical gap in the knowledge of the Magellanics' annual life cycle, their movements on the journey from their winter feeding grounds back to their breeding colonies along the southern Argentina coast and the Islas Malvinas, or Falkland Islands.

"We're missing that information. We know what happens when they leave the breeding grounds but we don't know what happens on the return trip," says Elizabeth Skewgar, a University of Washington doctoral student in biology.

"We want to model the energy requirements for these birds so that we understand what it takes to return to the breeding grounds and still have enough energy to reproduce. Human fisheries competing for the same food could make migration even more difficult for them."

The project is led by Dee Boersma, a UW biology professor who for 25 years has headed the Magellanic Penguin Project at Punta Tombo, Argentina, the birds' largest breeding colony in South America.

"We need to know how penguins use the ocean so we can make their migration route safe through a combination of national marine parks, marine protected areas and ocean zoning," Boersma says.

During the week of Aug. 20, the scientists will select six adult male penguins from rehabilitation centers at San Clemente del Tuyu and Mar del Plata, coastal towns more than 500 miles north of Punta Tombo. Epoxy and special tape will be used to attach a transmitter to each bird before it is released into the Atlantic. The tags are about the size of many common cellular telephones and weigh less than 3.5 ounces.

"We want to put the transmitters on healthy, robust birds that we think are likely to get back and start breeding," Boersma says. "The point is to follow them back to their colony and see where they might be running into petroleum."

Through late October the birds' movements will be tracked by the Argos satellite system, operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the French space agency. A satellite will pass overhead every two hours and chart the penguins' positions, then transmit the information back to the researchers, who will use it to update a public tracking map on the Internet.

The transmitters will be active for 36 hours at a time and then will be off for 36 hours, a means of preserving the two double-A batteries in each transmitter for the life of the project. The researchers have no way of knowing whether the birds will go to southern Argentina or the Malvinas, or whether they will follow a straight course to the breeding grounds or take a circuitous route.

"After we release them, they could just hang out at Mar del Plata for a month. It's all up to them," Boersma said. "We're hoping the males we tag will be in a hurry to get to their colony and start breeding."

The satellite tracking also will be instrumental in pinpointing the birds after they arrive at the breeding grounds. Punta Tombo alone is home to some 400,000 penguins during breeding season.

"Tracking the locations by satellite is only accurate to within five kilometers, so it really is like trying to find a needle in a haystack," Boersma says.

Locating the penguins once they reach the breeding ground is important so the researchers can assess the birds' physical condition after the long journey.

"We'll know how much weight they gained or lost on their journey," Boersma says.


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