Living together on this small precious planet Earth, you must know that fresh water is one
of the most valuable resources we have.
There are many countries that have massive shortages of drinking water, and people have
been in constant search for new sources.
But recently, a solution just might have been discovered — and it lies deep under the
ocean.
Reservoirs of fresh water under the seabed were discovered back in the 1970s.
Scientists exploring the sea floor and scanning what was under it accidentally stumbled upon
pockets that contained water of reduced salinity.
It was not exactly drinking quality, but the level of salt in it was at least half that
of the sea above the pockets.
At the time, though, the researchers thought about this water as no more than a curiosity.
They didn’t know the volume of these pockets or how far they stretched, but measurements
showed they were not very large, which settled the issue for more than 40 years.
But interest in the subject flared anew in 2015, when a group of scientists headed by
marine geologist Chloe Gustafson decided to measure one of such pockets off the coast
of the US.
They used electromagnetic waves to try and find exactly how much fresh water might be
hiding beneath the ocean.
Saltwater is a better conductor of electricity than fresh water, so the method should’ve
shown the difference in response.
And what they found was simply astounding.
It turned out that the “pocket”, which had been thought to be a rather small and
isolated thing, stretched for miles and miles under the ocean floor and further down the
East coast of the US.
The scientists claim that the freshwater reservoir is about 217 miles in diameter, spanning from
Delaware in the south to Massachusetts in the north.
What’s more, Dr. Gustafson also notes that the results aren’t comprehensive: the EM
measurements aren’t precise, and they can’t exactly show the depth of the underground
basin.
So here comes an even more astonishing feature: the reservoir might be even bigger and deeper
than what the survey showed.
But even now, it’s almost as large as the biggest onshore freshwater bodies.
Some “pocket”, huh!
But even this is not all there is to the research.
Dr. Gustafson and her colleagues are pretty sure the Atlantic coast reservoir isn’t
the only one in the world.
Others might — and probably do — exist in different parts of the planet, although
they’re still to be found.
You see, hundreds of thousands of years ago, our planet was covered in ice — that period
is known to us as an ice age.
Time passed, and the temperature rose to a level where ice started to melt.
When that happened, fresh water (or its closest equivalent) began running all over the place,
filling every crack and fissure it could find.
Oceans as we know them already existed back then, so much of that water ran into them
too.
But some of it was trapped under the Earth’s crust.
Certainly, we’ve known about underground water sources for a long time, but this discovery
just might be a revolution in more ways than one.
For the time being, there’s no need to tap into those undersea waters, but if we’re
ever in short supply of fresh water, we now know where to find it.
It might also bring a much-needed relief to countries where drinking water is the most
precious resource, like many places in Africa or Middle East.
Like I said before, scientists are hopeful that such reservoirs as the one off the coast
of the US can be found in other places too, and if one of them exists beneath the coastal
waters of Africa, for example, it could be salvation for millions of people.
But before we get our hopes too high, though, let’s not forget that this underwater source
is not entirely fresh as we know it.
Drinking quality means that the level of salt, or salinity, is one part per thousand.
Measurements in the underground reservoir, however, show that, while closer to the coast
it’s almost fresh (about three parts per thousand), further down the ocean floor it
becomes more and more saline, reaching 15 parts per thousand.
It’s still twice as low as in the ocean water, though, so it’s surely worth tapping
into.
But if we can’t drink it, how can we use it?
And should we?
Well, don’t forget that we’re living in the age of technology and various scientific
discoveries — science has already found a way to deal with the problem of salinity
in water.
There are desalination plants all over the world that are already operating, and we actively
use the results of their work.
They make fresh water out of seawater for now, pushing salt out of it and making it
drinkable.
By far the biggest of them is in Saudi Arabia: the country has precious little fresh water
but lots of natural resources to power their plant, so it produces about the fifth of all
water in the world.
The problem with desalination plants is that they create lots of environmental issues.
They require huge amounts of energy, which many of them take from fossil fuels — and
as you know, such fuel is non-renewable and harmful for the environment.
But that’s not all.
Everything comes at a price, and salt from the seawater being desalinated must go somewhere.
In fact, out of every million gallons of seawater, only half becomes fresh enough for humans
to drink.
The rest goes to waste, filled with so much salt that nothing can live in it, let alone
ingest it.
All this wastewater is then dumped back into the oceans, slowly but steadily increasing
their salinity.
Given that there are over 20,000 desalination plants in the world now, you can imagine what
damage to the ocean ecosphere they do.
Ecological surveys show that desalination of seawater may have already caused extinction
of some underwater flora and fauna, and there’s more to come if we’re not careful with what
we do.
And there’s also the issue of greenhouse gases the plants emit.
Dr. Michael Kiparsky from the Wheeler Water Institute at the University of California,
Berkeley, says that our actions can create a kind of vicious circle.
If we continue using desalination plants as they are today, they’ll create more greenhouse
effect, warming our planet.
And as it warms, we’ll need more fresh water, and thus more seawater desalinated.
See?
That’s why it’s so important that we’ve found a source of freshwater underground.
In fact, its value cannot be overestimated: if we have huge untapped reservoirs of almost
drinkable water, we don’t really need to process so much seawater.
What’s more, right now many countries, including the US, depend on other underground water
reservoirs, such as the great Ogallala Aquifer that nourishes eight states of America.
I bet you can picture what the finding of a new body of water, similar in size, means
for the country.
And finally, there’s one more thing to say about this newfound fresh water source.
Like I said earlier, it appeared because of the melting of ice after the ice age ended.
But recent research suggests that these undersea waters are also fed by land sources: rivers,
streams, and rainfall.
What it means is that the reservoir has been steadily growing since the ice age, and continues
to do so even now, as you’re watching this video.
For humankind, such a discovery means a lot of things, and perhaps the best of them is
a whole new hope for survival.
I already mentioned that desalination requires a lot of energy and makes tons of waste, and
it’s only natural that it costs a lot too.
The undersea fresh water also has to be desalinated, but the costs of it would be much lower, it
would produce a lot less salty wastewater, and require a great deal less energy.
I don’t think I need to say that it would be a huge relief for our planet.
As for the groundwater in the shallow areas under the seabed, it’s pretty much fresh
as it is — it only becomes saline and undrinkable when it goes farther into the sea.
So, if we ever extract water from the areas close to the coast, it won’t require any
desalination at all.
Translating that: we have a huge vessel of drinking water right beneath our feet.
Well, if we go wet them on the beach, that is.
In the meantime, though, it’s worth mentioning that the Atlantic reservoir doesn’t need
to be pumped for water: the East coast of the US has plenty of fresh water as is.
But research continues, and scientists are positive they’ll find other reservoirs like
this one.
Australian researchers, for example, have already expressed hope that there’s another
pocket of water somewhere around their continent too — it would greatly help the country
that mostly consists of arid deserts.
So what do you think?
Is it worth starting to tap the newfound water source right now?
Or hold on to it for an un-rainy day?
Let me know down in the comments!
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