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Page added on December 7, 2013
Undersea Freshwater Reserves Could Quench the World’s Thirst for Decades
Freshwater is fast becoming a scarce resource as our global population swells. Some say World War III will be fought over access to it. But newfound reserves of freshwater under the sea may represent a vast source that has been previously overlooked.
Researchers announced this week that they’ve probed the extent of freshwater reserves under the sea off the coasts of South Africa, China, North America and Australia. Scientists have known about these pockets for a while but had no idea how many or how large they were. Now researchers estimate they contain about 120,000 cubic miles of water. Each cubic mile is equivalent to 1.1 trillion gallons, enough water to satisfy all of the United States’ present water usage for about 9 days. The lead researcher put it in perspective for Agence France Presse,
“The volume of this water resource is a hundred times greater than the amount we’ve extracted from the Earth’s sub-surface in the past century.”
Forgotten Freshwater
These pockets of freshwater formed during the Last Glacial Maximum, as described in The Raw Story,
The deposits were formed over hundreds of thousands of years in the past, when the sea level was much lower and areas now under the ocean were exposed to rainfall which was absorbed into the underlying water table. When the polar icecaps started melting about 20,000 years ago these coastlines disappeared under water, but their aquifers remain intact — protected by layers of clay and sediment.
Since it isn’t as salty as seawater, the reserves would be easier and cheaper to desalinate for consumption. The researchers say these freshwater reserves could sustain certain regions of the world for decades.
Water Hurdles
However these underground puddles aren’t filled with Evian. The water is brackish and will require a fair amount of filtering. In addition, some larger problems loom.
One, the water will be difficult to extract. As described in the Huffington Post,
Drilling for the trapped water would be an expensive endeavor, and engineers have only two options to tap it. They can build a platform out at sea and drill into the seabed, or drill from the mainland or islands close to the aquifers.
And two, these are non-renewable sources of water. Our existing aquifers eventually get replenished by rainwater, but these newfound reserves are completely cut off from the hydrologic cycle, according to the paper published in Nature. They won’t get refilled until the next Ice Age, when sea levels drop low enough to expose them at the surface. Use wisely, then.
14 Comments on "Undersea Freshwater Reserves Could Quench the World’s Thirst for Decades"
rockman on Sat, 7th Dec 2013 2:25 pm
First, “brackish” is salty water and not potable so in addition to the expense of producing it a lot of energy will be needed to make it useful.
Second, the is no “lack” of fresh water on the planet. The problem is the much of it isn’t where we want to use. Thus the same problem: the cost to move it where we need it.
Technically there’s nothing false in the report other than the possibility that more than a few Joe6packs won’t pick up on the details and will believe this is a viable solution.
Perhaps they could attach a story about the abundant hydrocarbons found on the moons of some of our neighboring planets. Just need to get it here and we’ll finally be “energy independent”. LOL
Bob Inget on Sat, 7th Dec 2013 3:14 pm
While Rockman is correct, there is no shortage of ‘fresh water’. It’s just not always in the right places.
While water pipelines won’t be controversial, they are too costly, certainly for AG. As with power generation, on site is cheaper.
I believe conservation through filtration is a solution we can live with. Living in a semi-arid location, I’m always reminded how generals are always fighting “the last war”.I’ve watched long time residents with ‘dry’ wells buy delivered water while not bothering to catch water off thousands of square feet of roofing. When I tell them it’s possible to store rain, often floodwater in abandoned wells I get blank stares.
Water saving is energy saving, thats obvious to everyone here. Even with gasoline and diesel priced dearly most folks can’t make the connection.
sunweb on Sat, 7th Dec 2013 3:26 pm
Too many people, too many industrial processes including industrial agriculture requiring too much water other than that let’s mine it all. If we can threaten it with frackin’ and tar sands, we might as well go for broken.
DC on Sat, 7th Dec 2013 5:07 pm
So, once we have exploited all the clean, easy to get at water, well go after the brackish, semi-salty, deep and remote sources.
Sound familiar?
Myself, I think well probably just just siphon off the ice caps in Greenland, Antarctica, and whats left of the North polar ice. Well stick in it tankers, and ship it south.
Newfie on Sat, 7th Dec 2013 6:04 pm
“… these freshwater reserves could sustain certain regions of the world for decades”.
Wow. That’s practically forever. I think I’ll go out and water my lawn.
Cam on Sat, 7th Dec 2013 6:55 pm
Well, there’s an awful lot of water in the Antarctic ice sheet too. Same problem though! How to get it from there to here at a price that makes it economic. Seems like the chances of that are slim to none as the energy required to transport it continues to become more expensive!
baptised on Sat, 7th Dec 2013 7:53 pm
Please never use rain water off a roof! If it is asphalt shingles, imagine Walmart parking lot. If it is galvanized or baked on paint over steel sheets, you have all kinds of bad heavy metals.
westexas on Sat, 7th Dec 2013 9:11 pm
In any case, wouldn’t water utilities access onshore brackish water first?
A case in point is El Paso, which has a reverse osmosis project that is producing potable fresh water from a brackish water source.
westexas on Sat, 7th Dec 2013 9:12 pm
Article on El Paso, Texas project:
http://www.epwu.org/water/desal_info.html
J-Gav on Sat, 7th Dec 2013 11:08 pm
Westexas – thanks for the link. Having lived in El Paso for a year and a half (and a brother who still lives there), I’m interested. As you know they made a recent major fresh-water aquifer discovery a few miles north of town, but that won’t last forever…
As for the reverse-osmosis process, they say they’ve ‘reduced’ the cost but don’t give any figures… Hmmm …
J-Gav on Sat, 7th Dec 2013 11:14 pm
Concerning the article, it seems water is to become the new oil! Drill down thousands of meters to get it, build out the infrastructure to bring it to where it’s needed, etc. Leaks?, Cost? Laugh? Cry?
BillT on Sun, 8th Dec 2013 2:07 am
Another techie ‘fix’ that is not thought out or is a ‘come on’ for suckers to ‘invest’ their last cent in some get rich quick scheme. ALL of the mentioned methods are energy intensive and require oil energy to exist.
When you have a city like Las Vegas, in the center of a desert, with over 50, yes fifty, golf courses, hundreds of fountains and pools, and the river that feeds them no longer reaches the oceans most of the time, you have insanity ruling the world. We deserve to become extinct … and soon.
GregT on Sun, 8th Dec 2013 7:35 am
“Undersea Freshwater Reserves COULD Quench the World’s Thirst for Decades”
Well then, it sounds like we all might be able to survive for at least another 20 years. Wonderful.
SilentRunning on Sun, 8th Dec 2013 10:17 am
Wonderful! It looks like this discovery will mean plentiful fresh (aka less salty) water for decades! All it will take is billions of dollars invested in drilling supplies (great prospects for companies that provide drilling equipment) and companies that provide filtering. It also provides cover for those companies that want us to stop caring about the fresh water aquifers that are currently endangered. “No need to sweat the loss of your clean well water to hydrofracking – we’ll be able to provide plenty of fresh water from under the oceans…..”