{"id":131279,"date":"2020-11-25T08:00:01","date_gmt":"2020-11-25T18:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=131279"},"modified":"2025-05-22T18:14:13","modified_gmt":"2025-05-23T04:14:13","slug":"offshore-freshwater-discovery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2020\/11\/25\/offshore-freshwater-discovery\/","title":{"rendered":"Offshore submarine freshwater discovery raises hopes for islands worldwide"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 3<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><div class=\"responsive-video-wrap-post\"><figure class=\"wp-block-embed wp-block-embed-youtube is-type-video is-provider-youtube epyt-figure\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><div class=\"epyt-video-wrapper\"><iframe  id=\"_ytid_85743\"  width=\"676\" height=\"676\"  data-origwidth=\"676\" data-origheight=\"676\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/62XEEPZVpys?enablejsapi=1&origin=https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu&rel=0&autoplay=0&cc_load_policy=0&cc_lang_pref=&iv_load_policy=1&loop=0&fs=1&playsinline=0&autohide=2&theme=dark&color=red&controls=1&disablekb=0&\" class=\"__youtube_prefs__  no-lazyload\" title=\"Offshore submarine freshwater discovery raises hopes for islands worldwide\"  allow=\"fullscreen; accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen data-no-lazy=\"1\" data-skipgform_ajax_framebjll=\"\"><\/iframe><\/div><\/div><\/figure><\/div>\n<p>Twice as much freshwater is stored offshore of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> Island than was previously thought, according to a University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> study with important implications for volcanic islands around the world. An extensive reservoir of freshwater within the submarine southern flank of the Hual\u0101lai aquifer has been mapped by <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">糖心Vlog官方<\/abbr> researchers with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/epscor\/ike-wai-project\/\"><span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> <abbr>EPSCoR<\/abbr> &#699;Ike Wai project<\/a>. The groundbreaking findings, published in <em>Science Advances<\/em>, reveal a novel way in which substantial volumes of freshwater are transported from onshore to offshore submarine aquifers along the coast of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> Island.<\/p>\n<p>This mechanism may provide alternative renewable resources of freshwater to volcanic islands worldwide. &ldquo;Their evidence for separate freshwater lenses, stacked one above the other, near the Kona coast of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span>, profoundly improves the prospects for sustainable development on volcanic islands,&rdquo; said <abbr>糖心Vlog官方<\/abbr> M\u0101noa <a href=\"https:\/\/www.soest.hawaii.edu\/soestwp\/\">School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology<\/a> (<abbr>SOEST<\/abbr>) Dean <strong>Brian Taylor<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h2>Paradigm shift<\/h2>\n<figure id=\"attachment_131295\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-131295\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/manoa-soest-freshwater-attias-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"Eric Attias deploys CSEM system\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-131295\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/manoa-soest-freshwater-attias-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/manoa-soest-freshwater-attias-130x73.jpg 130w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/manoa-soest-freshwater-attias.jpg 676w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-131295\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Eric Attias (center) deploys <abbr>CSEM<\/abbr> system<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Through the use of marine controlled-source electromagnetic imaging, the study revealed the onshore-to-offshore movement of freshwater through a multilayer formation of basalts embedded between layers of ash and soil, diverging from previous groundwater models of this area. Conducted as a part of the National Science Foundation-supported &#699;Ike Wai project, research affiliate faculty <strong>Eric Attias<\/strong> led the marine geophysics campaign.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Our findings provide a paradigm shift from the conventional hydrologic conceptual models that have been vastly used by multiple studies and water organizations in <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> and other volcanic islands to calculate sustainable yields and aquifer storage for the past 30 years,&rdquo; said Attias. &ldquo;We hope that our discovery will enhance future hydrologic models, and consequently, the availability of clean freshwater in volcanic islands.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Related <em><abbr>糖心Vlog官方<\/abbr> News<\/em> story:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2019\/04\/09\/ocean-sensors-hawaii-island-aquifers\/\">Ocean sensors help <abbr>糖心Vlog官方<\/abbr> researchers understand <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> Island aquifers<\/a>, April 9, 2019<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Co-author Steven Constable, a professor of geophysics at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, who developed the controlled source electromagnetic system used in the project, said, &ldquo;I have spent my entire career developing marine electromagnetic methods such as the one used here. It is really gratifying to see the equipment being used for such an impactful and important application. Electrical methods have long been used to study groundwater on land, and so it makes sense to extend the application offshore.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Kerry Key, an associate professor at Columbia University who employs electromagnetic methods to image various oceanic Earth structures, who not involved in this study, said, &ldquo;This new electromagnetic technique is a game changing tool for cost-effective reconnaissance surveys to identify regions containing freshwater aquifers, prior to more expensive drilling efforts to directly sample the pore waters. It can also be used to map the lateral extent of any aquifers already identified in isolated boreholes.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<h2>Two-times more water<\/h2>\n<figure id=\"attachment_131296\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-131296\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/manoa-soest-freshwater-aquifer.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/manoa-soest-freshwater-aquifer-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"Conceptual model of freshwater path from rainfall to offshore\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-131296\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/manoa-soest-freshwater-aquifer-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/manoa-soest-freshwater-aquifer-130x73.jpg 130w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/manoa-soest-freshwater-aquifer.jpg 676w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-131296\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Conceptual model of freshwater path from rainfall to offshore. Click for larger image.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>Donald Thomas<\/strong>, a geochemist with the <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> Institute of Geophysics and Planetology in <abbr>SOEST<\/abbr> who also worked on the study, said the findings confirm two-times the presence of much larger quantities of stored groundwater than previously thought.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Understanding this new mechanism for groundwater&#8230;is important to better manage groundwater resources in <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span>,&rdquo; said Thomas, who leads the <span aria-label=\"Humuula\">Humu&#699;ula<\/span> Groundwater Research project, which <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2015\/01\/23\/large-fresh-water-supply-discovered-by-uh-researchers-on-hawaii-island\/\">found another large freshwater supply<\/a> on <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> Island several years ago.<\/p>\n<p>Offshore freshwater systems similar to those flanking the Hual\u0101lai aquifer are suggested to be present for the island of <span aria-label=\"Oahu\">O&#699;ahu<\/span>, where the electromagnetic imaging technique has not yet been applied, but, if demonstrated, could provide an overall new concept to manage freshwater resources.<\/p>\n<p>The study proposes that this newly discovered transport mechanism may be the governing mechanism in other volcanic islands. With offshore reservoirs considered more resilient to climate change-driven droughts, volcanic islands worldwide can potentially consider these resources in their water management strategies.<\/p>\n<p>This project is supported by the National Science Foundation <abbr>EPSCoR<\/abbr> Program Award <abbr>OIA<\/abbr> #1557349.<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8212;By Kelli Abe Trifonovitch<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"responsive-video-wrap-post\"><figure class=\"wp-block-embed wp-block-embed-youtube is-type-video is-provider-youtube epyt-figure\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><div class=\"epyt-video-wrapper\"><iframe  id=\"_ytid_21055\"  width=\"676\" height=\"380\"  data-origwidth=\"676\" data-origheight=\"380\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6dbKQbnpfoc?enablejsapi=1&origin=https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu&rel=0&autoplay=0&cc_load_policy=0&cc_lang_pref=&iv_load_policy=1&loop=0&fs=1&playsinline=0&autohide=2&theme=dark&color=red&controls=1&disablekb=0&\" class=\"__youtube_prefs__  no-lazyload\" title=\"Submarine freshwater offshore Hawai&#039;i\"  allow=\"fullscreen; accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen data-no-lazy=\"1\" data-skipgform_ajax_framebjll=\"\"><\/iframe><\/div><\/div><\/figure><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Extensive multilayer freshwater reservoir found in submarine aquifers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,12],"tags":[521,1363,92,9,56],"class_list":["post-131279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","category-video","tag-epscor","tag-manoa-research","tag-school-of-ocean-and-earth-science-and-technology","tag-uh-manoa","tag-video-2","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131279"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131279\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":216569,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131279\/revisions\/216569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}