Denver [Colorado], September 11: Scientists have uncovered what is believed to be a vast, hidden freshwater aquifer stretching along the US East Coast, from New Jersey to Maine, located deep beneath the Atlantic Ocean.
This remarkable find follows an unexpected discovery nearly 50 years ago, when a US government vessel, originally searching for minerals and hydrocarbons, drilled into the seafloor off the northeastern United States and stumbled upon fresh water.
Building on that initial surprise, a pioneering global research expedition, Expedition 501, ventured off Cape Cod this summer. Drilling beneath the saltwater, the team extracted thousands of samples, confirming the existence of this colossal underwater reservoir.
"It's just one of many depositories of secret fresh water" known to exist in shallow salt waters around the world that might some day be tapped to slake the planet's intensifying thirst, said Brandon Dugan, the expedition's co-chief scientist.
"We need to look for every possibility we have to find more water for society," Dugan, a geophysicist and hydrologist at the Colorado School of Mines, added.
The research teams looked in "one of the last places you would probably look for fresh water on Earth." They found it, and will be analysing nearly 50,000 litres of it back in their labs around the world in the coming months. They're out to solve the mystery of its origins - whether the water is from glaciers, connected groundwater systems on land or some combination.
The potential is enormous. So are the hurdles of getting the water out and puzzling over who owns it, who uses it and how to extract it without undue harm to nature. It's bound to take years to bring that water ashore for public use in a big way, if it's even feasible.
According to the UN, in five years, the global demand for fresh water will exceed supplies by 40 percent. Rising sea levels from the warming climate are souring coastal freshwater sources, while data centres that power AI and cloud computing are consuming water at an insatiable rate.
Source: Emirates News Agency
