As I was walking through Liberty Science Center’s Our Hudson Home exhibit the other day, I began thinking about the diversity of creatures that live in the Hudson River that we never notice because of all the silt and particulate being carried in the river. From turtles to pufferfish, they are all there swimming right outside our windows.

Another river that holds many secrets below its surface is the Amazon. Although it’s the world’s longest river, only recently have scientists uncovered the worlds below the surface.

When many of us think of reefs, we imagine the Great Barrier Reef off of Australia’s coast and clown fish swimming through waving anemones. What we don’t think of is the muddy waters of the Amazon. Yet scientists have found that underneath this dark, mysterious body of water lies a deep water reef system.

The scientist team, led by Dr. Fabiano Thompson, dredged part of the Amazon which had been postulated to contain a reef in the 1970s. Many scientists doubted this idea because the muddiness of the river would prevent enough sunlight from reaching the organisms on the bottom. But their doubts were silenced when they found sea fans, sponges, corals, and many other types of animals that are normally found in oceanic reefs. This was a surprise because these creatures survive with very little light and very little oxygen, usually necessary components of an oceanic reef system. The reef is located by the continental shelf, which is deep enough to prevent buildup of the heavy sediment that normally flows throughout the Amazon.

Currently, the scientists have only explored about 10 percent of the reef system but hope to go back to uncover the many mysteries of the Amazon. Until then, we can learn about the mysteries of the river right outside our window at Our Hudson Home, and wonder what else may be lying just under the surface.

Benedetta Naglieri is a STEM educator at Liberty Science Center.