A recent nine-day investigation led by Polish explorer and scientist Jacek Palkiewicz, has revealed that the Amazon, one of the world's largest rivers, has its source in an underground glacier in the southern Peruvian Andes. The Apachita crevice, an icy creek 16,958 ft above sea level near the city of Arequipa, some 1,000 km from Lima, is the origin of the river, which reportedly carries a fifth of the world's waters.
The Amazon has been the object of attention of geographers world-wide. Earlier expeditions of the National Geographic Society in 1971 led scientists to believe that the source of the Amazon was somewhere near the Carlauasanta crevice located near the Bolivian border.
According to John Hemming, an avid Amazonian explorer and director, Royal Geographical Society, London, the latest source could be the most accurate. However, the claims of Palkiewicz and his team have yet to gain international acceptance. The hitch lies in various definitions of the source of a big river. While for some, it is the highest point at which the waters feeding it are located, for others, it is the place furthest from the mouth of the river.
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