Underground Rivers - University of New Mexico

Chapter 26 -- Subterranean Water Bodies
CHAPTER 26
SUBTERRANEAN WATER BODIES
We'll begin this chapter by noting our propensity to assume that what lies below resembles what
we know above. To wit, "On the Cause of Fresh Water Springs, Fountains, &c.," American
Journal of Science and Arts, July 1828, by Joseph Du Commun.
It seems that streams, rivulets and rivers under ground, are as numerous as on the surface of
the earth, that they join together to form main streams, and that they are all directed towards
the sea, where they empty at various depths, we may suppose also that there are lakes various
in extent.
Or let us quote from "The Artesian Well," Western Rural and American Stockman, February 22,
1894.
Creeks and rivers on the surface of the earth traverse scores and hundreds of miles. Then why
not the same under the surface? That subterranean streams, some of them of large volume
traverse underground channels with almost as little obstruction as on the surface has been
proven beyond doubt... How numerous and of what volume subterranean rivers may be down
deeper in the earth than the well auger has ever penetrated, of course we cannot now know.
In the same vein, we cite The Earth: A Descriptive History of the Phenomena of the Life of the
Globe (1872) by Elisee Reclus.
Like a captive, joyous at seeing the light once more, the water which shoots forth from the
somber grotto of rocks sparkles in the sun, and careers along with a light murmur between its
flowery banks.
By means of these natural gulfs it is possible to reach the subterranean streams, and to give
some account of their system, which is exactly like that of rivulets and rivers flowing in the open
air. These streams also have their cascades, their windings, and their islands; they also erode
or cover with alluvium the rocks which compose their bed, and they are subject to all the
fluctuations of high and low water.
The current gradually hollows out vast cavities, the ceilings of which fall in, and are carried
away by the water almost in single grains. Where beds of hard stone oppose the flow of the
rivulet, all it has done during the course of centuries has been to hew out one narrow aperture.
This succession of widenings and contractions, similar to those of the valleys on the surface,
forms a series of chambers, separated one from the other by partitions of rock. The water
spreads widely in large cavities, then, contracting its stream, rushes through each defile as if
through a sluice.
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