Scientists may have uncovered an unexpected lifeline beneath the Atlantic Ocean: vast reservoirs of freshwater hidden below the seafloor of the northeastern United States. The discovery could reshape how the world tackles water scarcity, offering a new and unconventional approach to securing clean drinking water.
According to the Associated Press, an international team of scientists aboard the research vessel Liftboat Robert drilled into the seabed off Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and pulled up tens of thousands of liters of fresh and nearly fresh water. Their work, part of Expedition 501, suggests that a massive undersea aquifer is stretching from New Jersey to Maine.
"We need to look for every possibility we have to find more water for society," Brandon Dugan, co-chief scientist of the mission and a geophysicist at the Colorado School of Mines, told the AP.
Some of the samples taken revealed water with salinity levels as low as one part per thousand, comparable to many lakes and rivers on land. While not immediately ready for human consumption, the discovery of the water source could nevertheless open the door to new ways of meeting rising global demand.
Access to clean water is one of the most urgent challenges facing humanity. According to research published in Science in 2016, over four billion people experienced severe water shortages at least one month per year. In 2023, the United Nations projected that by 2030, global demand for freshwater would outpace supply by 40 percent.
Rising sea levels, extreme heat, droughts, and sprawling data centers that consume huge amounts of water are only making the problem worse. In places like Cape Town, South Africa — which nearly ran out of water in 2018 — and Jakarta, Indonesia, undersea aquifers, like this one off the Eastern Seaboard, could one day serve as emergency reserves.
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The environmental benefits of the discovery could be far-reaching as well. New sources of potable water could reduce stress on overdrawn rivers and lakes, providing wildlife with more stable habitats. Communities may also be better equipped to withstand droughts and other extreme weather events, protecting public health and reducing costly disruptions to food and water systems.
Researchers still need to determine the water's age, origin, and if it's being replenished naturally before declaring it ready for use, according to the reporting news agency. And risks such as those related to groundwater overuse and land subsidence — or "sinking" often driven by the over-extraction of groundwater — would also need to be evaluated to understand if they might present problems in this case.
But if extraction proves feasible, experts say these aquifers could supplement conservation efforts and reduce reliance on energy-hungry desalination plants.
As Dugan told the AP, drilling beneath the ocean floor shows that "one of the last places you would probably look for fresh water on Earth" may prove to be one of the most promising.
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