Freshwater resources are shrinking. An estimated 40% of the global population will face water shortage issues by 2020, and Malta will be one of them. We currently rank among the top 10 poorest countries in terms of water resources per inhabitant.
A potential solutions lies with a source of freshwater in the unlikeliest of places—hundreds of metres below the seafloor. Recent estimates suggest a considerable amount of freshwater is hosted in offshore sediment and rock, around four times that used by humans in the past two centuries. The role of this system, however is not quite clear.
During the last century, it has been proposed that underwater groundwater not only acts as a source of freshwater, but as an important factor in shaping landscapes. It is thought to have a role in controlling processes like submarine landsliding, and can affect canyon formation and tsunami generation. The Marine Geology & Seafloor Surveying (MGSS) group developed the MARCAN project to answer these questions. With scientists across the globe in the team, including Dr Aaron Micallef (Faculty of Science, University of Malta), their aim is to determine the characteristics and dynamics of offshore groundwater systems
This project is currently in its first phases. An expedition to South Island in New Zealand has been undertaken to investigate and map the groundwater in the region. A similar expedition will be carried out in the Maltese Islands. The data collected will inform both the presence of underwater groundwater and allow simulations to determine its influence in shaping terrestrial and submarine landscapes.
The MARCAN project could help address the freshwater shortage problem but also contribute to our understanding of the natural environment’s formation, both on Earth and possibly elsewhere.
For more read the in-depth feature in Think magazine: https://www.um.edu.mt/think/underwater-groundwater/