The Boiling River of the Amazon
Deep in the Peruvian Amazon, far from any volcano, a river runs hot enough to scald.
What was reported
As a child, the Peruvian geoscientist Andrés Ruzo heard stories of a river in the Amazon so hot it boiled. Most people he asked said it couldn't exist. In 2011 he found it: the Shanay-timpishka, a river a few kilometres long in the central Peruvian Amazon, sacred to local healers.
Parts of it run close to boiling, hot enough to scald, though there's no active volcano anywhere nearby.
Explanations offered
Ruzo's research suggests the water is rain that seeps deep underground, is warmed by the Earth's natural heat, and comes back to the surface along faults. It's a rare example of a large hot river with no link to a volcano.
- When
- Studied from 2011
- Where
- Mayantuyacu, Huánuco, Peru
- Witnesses
- Local healers and the geoscientist Andrés Ruzo
- Status
- Explained
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.