A team of geoscientists from multiple institutions has made an intriguing discovery—a deep, ancient underground pool of fresh water beneath a section of the Sicilian mountains. Their study, published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment, utilized publicly available data collected during oil exploration efforts to investigate the groundwater in and around the Gela formation beneath Sicily’s mountains.
By analyzing maps and data from previous surveys conducted to locate oil deposits, the researchers stumbled upon what they believe to be an unknown aquifer situated thousands of feet below the Hyblaean Mountains. To validate their findings, they created 3D models of the aquifer, which provided evidence suggesting that it not only functions as an aquifer but also contains approximately 17.5 cubic kilometers of water.
Curious about how such a significant amount of fresh water ended up trapped beneath a mountain range, the team proposed a theory. They suggest that during the Messinian salinity crisis millions of years ago—a 700,000-year period marked by a blockage at the Strait of Gibraltar, causing many parts of the Mediterranean Sea to dry up—the rainwater that fell on the exposed seafloor seeped into the crust. This rainwater, absorbed by carbonate rock acting as a sponge, could have accumulated underground. When sea levels returned to normal, the underground fresh water became trapped due to the pressure exerted by seawater.
Furthermore, the researchers identified a probable pathway for the ancient rainwater—the Malta Escarpment, which stretches across eastern regions of Sicily.
2023-12-10 14:41:03
Source from phys.org rnrn