The first year of the SWAN project, which entails a collaboration between the University of Malta, GEOMAR, and Texas A&M University, was completed in March 2023. The project is funded through the Energy and Water R&I Grant Scheme 2021 (Energy and Water Agency).

Led by Aaron Micallef and Anna Eliana Pastoressa from the Department of Geosciences of the University of Malta, the SWAN project aims to develop a surface-towed Control Source Electromagnetic (CSEM) system for mapping offshore groundwater resources up to a water depth of 100 m.

CSEM methods are geophysical investigation techniques that utilize electromagnetic signals generated by an artificial and controllable source in a marine environment to explore the geological subsurface.

In the first year of work, the research team conducted a comprehensive review of the scientific and technological literature to understand the state of the art technology available for CSEM. The SWAN team concluded that surface-towed systems offer the best performance in terms of the relationship between investigation speed and data quality. Based on the results obtained from synthetic modelling tests, the SWAN team was able to develop a conceptual prototype of the CSEM system. The hardware components have been procured and are currently being assembled. The prototype will be tested offshore Germany, Italy and Malta in the coming months.

Further information on the SWAN project is available online.