Subterranean river

File:Buna source.jpg can be entered by boat and dived through a cave system serving as an effluence of the Zalomka.]]

File:Caves entranceexit.jpg cave can be entered by boat.]]

File:La chute d'entrée de la Gorge du Diable.jpg

There are many natural examples of subterranean rivers. Among them:

• In Bosnia and Herzegovina: Unac; Mušnica-Trebišnjica-Krupa/Ombla (Ombla springs out of huge cave near Dubrovnik, Croatia and after just ca. 30 meters empties into Adriatic Sea's ria called Rijeka Dubrovačka); Zalomka-Buna/Bunica/Bregava; Vrljika-Trebižat; Lištica-Jasenica; Šuica-Ričina{{cite web |title=Devon Karst: Karst of the Dinaric Alps - the Dinarides in Bosnia and Herzegovina |url=http://www.devonkarst.org.uk/Karstography%20of%20DINARIC%20KARST%20in%20BiH.html |website=devonkarst.org.uk |access-date=5 July 2018 |archive-date=16 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200816113149/http://www.devonkarst.org.uk/Karstography%2520of%2520DINARIC%2520KARST%2520in%2520BiH.html |url-status=dead }}{{cite web |title=Devon Karst: Gatačko Polje - GP-Ponor Dobrelji |url=http://www.devonkarst.org.uk/Gatacko%20Polje/GP-Ponor%20-%20Dobrelji.html |website=devonkarst.org.uk |access-date=5 July 2018}}
• In Bulgaria:
• Banderishka reka, subterranean section below Kutelo Peak, Pirin Mountain
• Struma River subterranean currents in Duhlata cave, Vitosha Mountain
• Negovanka River subterranean currents in Emen cave, Veliko Tarnovo Province
• Trigradska reka, subterranean section where Devil's Throat Cave and Trigrad Gorge, Rhodope Mountains
• The Camuy River located in the northwestern region of Puerto Rico is one of the{{cite web|url=http://places.eyetour.com/whatToSee/camuy/56/parque-de-las-cavernas-del-rio-camuy|title=Parque de las Cavernas del Río Camuy - Video Guide - Camuy, Puerto Rico - EyeTour.com|website=places.eyetour.com}} largest underground river systems in the world.
• The Cross Cave system in Loška Dolina, Slovenia includes 22 subterranean lakes
• The Lost River in the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia disappears underground and reappears as the Cacapon River
• The Mojave River in southern California flows underground in most places
• The Phong Nha-Kẻ Bàng National Park in Vietnam has an underground river flowing through its cave system
• The Puerto Princesa Subterranean River on the island of Palawan, Philippines flows underground before emerging into the South China Sea{{cite web|url=http://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/2012/09/05/administrative-order-no-29-s-2012/|title=Administrative Order No. 29, s. 2012 - GOVPH|website=officialgazette.gov.ph|date=5 September 2012 }}
• The Punkva in Moravian Karst, Moravia, Czech Republic underground river flowing through cave system - Punkva Caves and Macocha gorge.
• The Santa Fe River in northern Florida drops into a large sinkhole in O'Leno State Park and reappears in the adjacent River Rise Preserve State Park, {{convert|3|mi}} downstream.
• The Reka in Slovenia, which disappears in the Škocjan Caves, re-emerges as part of the Timavo in Italy.{{Cite journal |last=ALEXANDER |first=PAUL B. |date=1970 |title=The Reka-Timavo River System of the Yugoslavian and Italian Karst |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24041059 |journal=Yearbook of the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers |volume=32 |pages=157–165 |jstor=24041059 |issn=0066-9628}}

File:Effra vauxhall 2.jpg is one of the subterranean rivers of London. It empties into the Thames by Vauxhall Bridge, from which this photograph was taken.]]

In many cities there are natural streams which have been partially or entirely built over. Such man-made examples of subterranean urban streams are too numerous to list, but notable examples include:

• The Bièvre underneath Paris, France
• The Boyanska reka (Boyana river), partially underneath Sofia, Bulgaria
• Castle Frank Brook, Garrison Creek, Russell Creek, and Taddle Creek, and other subterranean urban streams in Toronto
• The River Farset, which Belfast is named after, which runs in tunnels underneath the city.
• The Fleet and other subterranean rivers of London
• The Frome underneath Bristol
• The Hobart Rivulet in Tasmania
• Mill Creek in Philadelphia
• The Neglinnaya River, which runs through a series of tunnels underneath the central part of Moscow
• The Park River underneath Hartford
• The Spirit Lake Outlet Tunnel underneath Harry's Ridge in Skamania County, Washington, United States
• The River Team underneath the Team Valley Trading Estate, Gateshead, United Kingdom
• The Tank Stream underneath Sydney, Australia
• The Zenne underneath Brussels, following the covering of the Zenne between 1865 and 1871

• Subterranean rivers of London
• Subterranean rivers in Hong Kong

Some fish (popularly known as cavefish) and other troglobite organisms are adapted to life in subterranean rivers and lakes.

{{globalize section|Europe|date=January 2024}}

File:Gustave Doré - Dante Alighieri - Inferno - Plate 9 (Canto III - Charon).jpg's Inferno, Charon ferries souls across the subterranean river Acheron.]]

Greek mythology included the Styx, Phlegethon, Acheron, Cocytus, and Lethe as rivers within the Underworld. Dante Alighieri, in his Inferno, included the Acheron, Phlegethon, and Styx as rivers within his subterranean Hell. Similar references were made in John Milton's Paradise Lost. The river Alph, running "Through caverns measureless to man / Down to a sunless sea" is central to the poem Kubla Khan, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

The characters in Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth encounter a subterranean river:

"Hans was not mistaken," he said. "What you hear is the rushing of a torrent."

"A torrent?" I exclaimed.

"There can be no doubt; a subterranean river is flowing around us."Jules Verne, Journey to the Center of the Earth, translated by Frederick Amadeus Malleson, 1877, [https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3748 at Project Gutenberg].

Several other novels also feature subterranean rivers. The subterranean rivers of London feature in the novel Drowning Man by Michael Robotham as well as in the novel Thrones, Dominations by Dorothy L. Sayers and Jill Paton Walsh in which a character remarks:

"You can bury them deep under, sir; you can bind them in tunnels, but in the end where a river has been, a river will always be."Dorothy L. Sayers and Jill Paton Walsh, Thrones, Dominations, Hodder and Stoughton, 1998, p. 313.

• {{annotated link|Abîme}}
• {{annotated link|Karst}}
• {{annotated link|Losing stream}}
• {{annotated link|Speleology}}
• {{annotated link|Subterranean waterfall}}
• {{annotated link|Underground lake}}

{{Commons category|Underground rivers}}

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{{Caves}}

{{Rivers, streams and springs}}

{{Subterranea}}

Category:Dinaric karst formations

Category:Hydrology and urban planning

Category:Fluvial landforms

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Category:Hydrology