Image caption: View of the deep 3D groundwater model in the subsurface of Hyblean Plateau in Southern Sicily (Italy)
A group of researchers from the University of Malta, the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV) and the University of Roma Tre recently published a highly-relevant scientific study in Nature Portfolio's prestigious journal 'Communications Earth & Environment'.
The article, titled 'Extensive freshened groundwater resources emplaced during the Messinian sea-level drawdown in southern Sicily, Italy,' reveals the presence of unprecedented groundwater resources in the Gela Formation, a Triassic carbonate platform in the subsurface of southern Sicily.
"Deep groundwater resources around the world may represent an important unconventional source of potable water that can support growing needs, also linked to global population growth", says Lorenzo Lipparini, University of Malta – INGV researcher, and first author of the study, together with Damiano Chiacchieri, PhD student at Roma Tre University, Roberto Bencini collaborator at the University of Bologna and Aaron Micallef, professor at the University of Malta.
"Here we document an extensive body of fresh and brackish groundwater preserved in a deep aquifer between 700 and 2500 meters below the Hyblean Mountains in southern Sicily."
The discovery of this vast accumulation of groundwater is the result of an innovative approach combining deep oil well analysis with advanced three-dimensional subsurface modelling techniques.
"We attributed the distribution of this fossil water accumulation to a meteoric recharge mechanism driven by the lowering of the sea level in the Messinian," Lipparini continues. "We have reconstructed that this lowering of the sea level, which occurred about 6 million years ago, reached 2400 meters below the current sea level in the eastern Mediterranean basin, creating favorable conditions for the infiltration of meteoric waters and the accumulation and preservation of this precious water resource underground".
"These fresh and brackish waters could have diversified uses, from potability to use for industrial and agricultural purposes, thus opening up new perspectives for southern Sicily and other Mediterranean coastal regions," the INGV researcher emphasises.
"This innovative approach could, in fact, be extended to other areas of the Mediterranean characterised by water scarcity and similar geological conditions," suggests the first author. "Thanks to the results achieved, it will now be possible to try to identify possible new accumulations also in areas such as Malta, Cyprus, Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, Lebanon and Turkey, to name a few."
"We have utilised the team's expertise, developed in particular in the field of oil exploration, to search, this time, for potential valuable deep groundwater resources to support sustainable development, which will also enable the challenges of water security to be addressed."
The Project has been listed as an 'action' at the UN Water Conference in March 2023 and, in the near future, the team plans to evaluate a development plan and project to utilise these waters.
Funding for this research was provided through a Marie Curie Grant project with the University of Malta, the support of the Roma Tre University and INGV.
