For centuries, Peruvian locals have talked about a river in the Amazon that burns so hot it can kill. According to [?], Spanish conquistadors foolishly ventured into the rainforest in search of gold, and the few men that returned told stories of poisoned water, man-eating snakes, and a river that boiled from below.

For Peruvian geoscientist, Andrés Ruzo, the myth had fascinated him since childhood. But it wasn't until he was completing his PhD project on geothermal energy potential in Peru that he began to [?] whether the river could actually be real.


It sounded pretty ridiculous, but in 2011, Ruzo took a [?] and hiked into the Amazon rainforest with his aunt, and saw the famed river with his own eyes.

Much to his disbelief, it was [?] hot.

"The average temperature in the river was 86 degrees Celsius, not quite boiling but definitely close enough ... It's not a legend."

The most puzzling part was the [?] size of it. Hot springs aren't uncommon, and thermal pools get to these temperatures in other parts of the world, but nothing even comes close to the scope of the river - it's up to 25 metres wide and six metres deep, and runs burning hot for an incredible 6.24 km.

To be clear, Ruzo obviously wasn't the first to discover the river, and as suggested by its [?] name - Shanay-timpishka, which means "boiled with the heat of the Sun" - he also wasn't the first to wonder what made it so hot.


It turns out, it's not the Sun that boils the water, but fault-fed hot springs.

Imagine Earth like a human body, with [?] lines and cracks running through it like arteries. These 'Earth arteries' are filled with hot water, and when they come to the surface, we see geothermal manifestations - like the boiling river.




Sources:
http://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-have-found-a-mysterious-boiling-river-straight-out-of-amazonian-legends
http://www.wordreference.com
http://www.youtube.com