The discovery was made at 800 meters below the surface in two small canyons on the continental slope outside Lofoten.
The discovery was made at 800 meters below the surface in two small canyons on the continental slope outside Lofoten. ‘When we the found fresh water leaking from the seabed, we were very surprised,’ explains scientist and marine geologist Wei-Li Hong at the Geological Survey of Norway (NGU) and CAGE.
A remote-controlled vehicle, deployed from research vessel G.O. Sars, collected and measured the water during an expedition in 2017. The leakage likely originated from a large pocket of fresh water, otherwise known as an aquifer, hidden beneath the sediment of the seabed.
‘Fisherman in Nordland county have told us that they also found fresh water in the sea, so pure that it could even be used for coffee. This was in Nordbreigrunnen, a few kilometers outside the town of Meløy,’ Hong claims.
Read more at: CAGE - Center for Arctic Gas Hydrate, Climate and Environment
Scientists have detected fresh water in two subsea canyons near Lofoten archepelago. (Photo Credit: NORCRUST/CAGE)
