Sand dunes in the Simpson Desert, covering a river system that is up to 50 million years old.
Credit: Michael Hutchinson/ANU
SYDNEY: An ancient river system buried 35 metres below the sand dunes Simpson Desert in Central Australia has been revealed by a team of Australian and American researchers.
This network of rivers and streams under the desert can be utilised for its valuable resources such as water in a sustainable way, the researchers said.
"We have gained insight into how the landscape works so we can manage water responsibly," said researcher Michael Hutchinson from the Australian National University in Canberra, a main contributor to the study published in the latest edition of the Australian Journal of Earth Sciences.
Hidden under thick sand dunes
Scientists have always suspected rivers and streams once traversed the Simpson, but the thickness of the overlying dunes and bedrock in this area and limitations in landscape sensing technology have always held research back.
A team from ANU, after more than a decade of work, have conquered the thick overlying dunes and bedrock and developed complex new Digital Elevation Model (ANUDEM) software that successfully mapped the subtle topography that underlies the landscape of today.
The software models how water moves across the surface of the continent. It infers the location of the underground river system by joining the lowest points from ground-level elevation measurements, Hutchinson said.
Vast river system
Using their new software, the team from ANU mapped the course of the rivers buried roughly 35 m under the Simpson Desert for the first time. The rivers are vast, covering hundreds of kilometres, the researchers said.
It is estimated the rivers and streams are some of the oldest in the world, at least 50 million years old, from a time when the desert was greener and wetter than it is today.
The results looked right according to the team, as the underground rivers were mapped where they were expected to be according to current adjoining rivers in the area.
"The ancient drainage systems are thought to have originated in the wet climate of the late Cretaceous, they are that old," Hutchinson said.
50 million years old? what a joke!
Is not just like some people who believe in the myth of evolution to make a grand discovery such as this and assign their own brand of religion to it by saying it is "50 million years old" and most people are just gullible enough to believe them. Just because a group of people fancy themselves as scientist says some thing is true does not make it so. History is full of instances where the so called "scientific community" has been proven WRONG!
You live in a medieval world
You live in a medieval world of darkness, and I feel sorry for you.
6,000 years
Yeah and the earth was created 6,000 years ago, In 7 'earth' days before the Earth was created. Yeah and Jesus drove a car, before cars were created. Maybe you should be reading 'religion dispatches' instead of a science mag. Big L on ya forehead.
Successful troll is
Successful troll is successful
science vs religion
Let's see the track record of those who "fancy themselves as scientists" vs those who "fancy themselves as religious".
Science:
Anti-bacterial drugs, air planes, cell phones, internet, space ships, transplants, genetic improvements, cures for innumerable diseases, scheduling systems, agricultural improvements, disease control, transportation systems, auto-pilots, airplane navigation systems, google translation, spelling, search, graphical rendering, movies, advances in macro and micro physics, increase productivity in factories, energy production (they find oil by looking at fossils and their known "evolution"), solar and wind energy conversion. The list is endless:
Religion:
Bunch of inconsistent old books. Moralizing but full of hypocrisy, failure to heed evidence and sticking to things that don't work. Backwardness, authoritarianism. 3000 years of philosophy with almost nothing to show for it. 3000 years of confusing "ought" for "is". Suppression of woman, suppression of non-believers. A, frankly embarrassing, dismal and shameful record.
I'll take science please.
science vs religion
Not to mention suicide bombers, the Spanish Inquisition, the Salem Witch Hunts, Guyana...the list goes on and on...
science vs religion
audacious to argue the "vs" - science itself is responsible for depth of destruction in your listed religious wars (guns, grenades, fighter aircraft etc)
science v religion
It is neither scientific nor realistic to compare apples and oranges, but for the sake of argument let's look at the numbers killed by science v those killed by religious fervor.The number could well be very very large and possibly line-ball.A good reason is that people misuse science and ditto religion for their own ends.The major difference between science and, say, Christianity, is that Christianity offers the human race belief in a way out.Religion offers hope, science offers doubt. When it's time to take your very last breath, which will you be most comfortable with?
elmohu,brisbane
Re: 50 million years old? what a joke!
Instead of posting here, why don't you simply burn them at the stake? That would be nothing new for the religious community....or drill holes in their heads to let the evil spirits out. Yeah, I think I'll stick to Science...
To '50 million years old? what a joke!'
I intended to call your thinking 'Neanderthal', but that would be insulting to those extinct members of the Homo genus. Time to grow up mate and expand your thinking!