Overview
Rainwater exposed the bottom during the crisis, establishing the aquifer that is currently beneath the mountains and hasn’t changed since its formation, according to a study published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment on November 22.
According to recent studies, a sizable freshwater reserve was drained six million years ago from the Earth’s crust. It is still buried deep under Sicily’s Hyblaean Mountains. This freshwater was likely trapped during the Mediterranean Sea’s depletion during the Messinian salinity crisis when the sea floor surrounding the Strait of Gibraltar rose and caused the sea to dry up. According to studies, it has continued to exist in an aquifer that is between 2,300 and 8,200 feet below the surface.
Rainwater exposed the bottom during the crisis, establishing the aquifer that is currently beneath the mountains and hasn’t changed since its formation, according to a study published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment on November 22.
By using 3D models to explore deep groundwater reserves near the Gela formation, researchers were able to determine the aquifer’s extent, which is estimated to be 4.2 cubic miles or more than double the amount of Scotland’s Loch Ness.
By using these 3D models, the researchers were able to reconstruct the region’s geological past and discovered that freshwater penetrating the Earth’s crust hundreds of feet below present sea levels occurred during the Messinian period (7.2 million to 5.3 million years ago).
The ‘fossil groundwater pool’, which had collected, became embedded in carbonate rocks and acted as a sponge, allowing fluids to seep into the spaces between the particles.
The researchers looked for a meteoric water channel or precipitation from rain and snowfall, that would connect the deeply buried Gela formation to the Mediterranean floor to corroborate their findings. The Malta Escarpment, a 190-mile-long underwater escarpment that extends from Sicily’s eastern edge, was identified as a likely connection and could serve as the water’s missing conduit.
The roughly 700,000-year-long Messinian salinity crisis came to a sudden end with a sharp rise in sea levels, which might have changed the pressure environment and turned off the groundwater mechanism. An alternative scenario is that during the crisis, sediment and mineral deposits closed off the conduit along the Malta Escarpment, preventing seawater from combining with fresh water in the Gela formation throughout the millions of years that followed.
The researchers intend to extract this freshwater resource to alleviate Sicily’s water scarcity. They are also eager to undertake such deep groundwater exploration projects in other Mediterranean locations.