Sea River (1965)

[Music] it began when the world was young some say there were two great land masses surrounding an inland sea from the sea mountains rose the splendid Andes whose peaks now look down upon a new continent that men long afterward would call South America the maturing continent rose higher streams formed and the waters flowed as a river from the Andes glaciers to the warm Atlantic but a river so vast it was still like an ocean with mouths 300 miles across and a length 900 miles greater than the breadth of the United States real Amazonas the Amazon the sea river [Music] in modern times the United States and the Amazonia countries have together studied the Great River the scientist wants to know more to complete an accurate picture of our planet the geologist wants to know more Amazonia is a potential source of ores and minerals that can benefit all mankind the agriculturist is interested amazonia's food fiber and forest resources are vast our hydrologists the water scientists want to know more to better understand America's rivers and predict variations of their flow conquering flood and drought is one of man's oldest desires water is life water is food water is industry like a water or water out of man's control is death the Amazon is a rich source of understanding of freshwater rivers everywhere [Music] summer 1963 a team from the Geological Survey United States Department of the Interior arrived in Brazil to survey the river specialists from the University of Brazil and the Brazilian Navy would work with them objective to obtain data about the world's greatest river never before gathered such as average discharge into the South Atlantic sediment carried away and chemical makeup data which will be valuable in worldwide hydrologic studies the team began work at Abydos here the river is wasp hoisted into a channel only a mile and a third across and the town is 560 miles upstream where ocean tides are negligible Abydos data would give the flow from 80% of the rivers drainage area information about the remaining 20% would be computed from climatic records and other sources to determine for the first time the amazon's total flow into the sea the team would make its first measurement in july the rivers flood season and a second in November the low-water season a Brazilian Corvette took the party the 560 miles up the Amazon to Abydos [Music] water studies showed that the Amazon is purer than most tap water in America the swimming is good the man-eating piranhas is more fiction than fact [Music] the town of Abydos the main business growing jute for burlap and twine about 20,000 people live in this colorful city [Music] to make their measurements the team divided a cross-section of the river into 24 subsections to measure the flow at each the team first found its width and depth the product gave the area of the subsection the team then measured the waters velocity in feet per second they now had the width depth and distance the subsection moved in one second and thus could calculate the volume of flow per second the product gave the cubic feet of water discharged each second at the sub section this was repeated 24 times the sum of the discharge at each sub section was the Amazons discharge at Abydos to actually determine the depth the team lowered a heavy sounding weight measured the amount of cable out the river was found to be 300 feet deep in many places well below sea level for accuracy the team used a phenomena to check the depth this instrument measures depth by echo sounding it also gives a detailed profile of the channel cross section the current meter just above the sounding weight measured water velocity the water turns the bucket wheel the operator hears a click each time the wheel turns he counts the number of clicks per minute to find water velocity for accuracy velocity was read at 20% and at 80% of the total depth and averaged the ship moved somewhat during the measurements because the river is too deep for anchoring these movements had to be measured to correct the velocity readings [Music] the team used a theodolite to find any upstream or downstream drift of the Corvette the theodolite is a telescope for sighting on the ship it indicates the ship's bearing the theodolite operator recorded the number of degrees the ship moved up or down stream during the forty to sixty second velocity measurement degrees were converted into the number of feet the ship had moved the team used a tell yer ometer to measure any across stream movement the master teller ometer was a board ship a remote unit ashore near the theodolite site during the velocity measurement the tell yer ometer game ship to shore distances by measuring how long it took for its radio waves to reach shore and return the differences in these distances gave the ships across stream movement this movement and the theater lights measurement of upstream downstream movement gave the net drift of the Corvette the figure used to correct the velocity data it was a tedious job the various measurements had to be made at all 24 subsections but they were getting data never before known to man the bottom sampler which resembles the sounding weight brought up sand from the riverbed the team also used a battered thermograph an instrument that makes a graph of water temperature at various depths the Amazon is about 85 degrees Fahrenheit top to bottom the year around they took water samples at the surface and at many depths with a tube sampler that closed at the desired level measurements of the amount of sediment the river carries showed the river is not eating out the continents heart as some surmised what is carved out becomes because of the Seas currents part of the land again perhaps the most striking finding was that the Amazon long accepted as supreme is faster than man ever guessed our Mississippi is as a thread to a rope for at abydos the Amazons discharge is mightier by 12 times seven million cubic feet per second the water that flows from the Amazon in a single day would cover the state of New York to adapt the topography of all the fresh water flowing from all the continents of the globe into the sea 18% is the amazon's real Amazonas the big barn the sea river