OS017
Groundwater beneath the seafloor – A sustainable resource?

Session ID#: 81240

Session Description:
Groundwater resources in coastal regions are facing enormous stress caused by population growth, increased pollution and climate change. Offshore aquifers (OAs) - groundwater bodies located beneath the seafloor - have been proposed as an alternative source of freshwater. However, there are a number of first-order questions needing to be addressed before OAs can be used sustainably. These include a lack of understanding of the location, nature, geometry and architecture of OAs, their connectivity with onshore aquifers, and their evolution in response to potential extraction and predicted climate change. This interdisciplinary session aims to address the current state of the art for methods, applications, and policy regarding if and how OAs may be used sustainably. We welcome contributions that cross disciplinary boundaries and seek to generate an open discussion for the future direction of offshore groundwater research, the legal ramifications, and possible societal and political challenges associated with this unexplored resource.
Index Terms:

1099 General or miscellaneous [GEOCHEMISTRY]
1829 Groundwater hydrology [HYDROLOGY]
3021 Marine hydrogeology [MARINE GEOLOGY AND GEOPHYSICS]
6620 Science policy [POLICY SCIENCES & PUBLIC ISSUES]

Primary Convener:  Bradley Weymer, GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Kiel, Germany
Conveners:  Mark Austin Person, New Mexico Tech, Earth & Environmental Science, Socorro, NM, United States and Heike Simon, University of Oldenburg, ICBM-MPI Bridging Group for Marine Geochemistry, Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment, Oldenburg, Germany
Primary Liaison:  Bradley Weymer, GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Kiel, Germany
 
Controlled-source Electromagnetic Imaging of Submarine Groundwater Reservoirs Offshore the Island of Hawai‘i (486859)
Eric Attias, Hawaiʻi Institute of Geophysics & Planetology (HIGP),, School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST), University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, Honolulu, Hawaii, HI, United States, Dallas Sherman, Frontier Geosciences, British Columbia, Canada, R&D, Vancover, Canada, Khaira Ismail, Duke University Marine Laboratory, North Carolina, USA, Durham, United States and Steven Constable, Univ California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, United States
 
3D characterisation of an offshore freshened groundwater system in a passive siliciclastic margin: Canterbury Bight, New Zealand (489707)
Aaron Micallef1,2, Amir Haroon1, Mark Austin Person3, Bradley Weymer1, Marion D Jegen1, Katrin Schwalenberg4, Zahra Faghih1, Shuangmin Duan1, Denis Cohen2, Joshu J Mountjoy5, Susi Woelz5,6, Carl W Gable7, Ashwani Kumar Tiwari8 and Tanita Averes9, (1)GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Kiel, Germany, (2)University of Malta, Msida, Malta, (3)New Mexico Tech, Earth & Environmental Science, Socorro, NM, United States, (4)BGR, Hannover, Germany, (5)NIWA National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, Wellington, New Zealand, (6)NIWA, Wellington, New Zealand, (7)Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, United States, (8)Politecnico di Torino, Torino, Italy, (9)University of Kiel, Institute of Geosciences, Kiel, Germany
 
Modern and fossil pockmarks in the New England Mud Patch: Implications for submarine groundwater discharge on the middle shelf (492500)
John Goff, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, United States
 
A Towed Streamer Controlled Source Electromagnetic System for Groundwater Surveying on the Continental Shelf (497134)
Alan D Chave, Robert L Evans, John Bailey, Steve Lerner, Matt Gould, Bennett Helfrich and Steve Caldwell, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, United States
 
Effect of inclined interface between fresh and seawater fronts on efficiency of subsurface barrier (500623)
Vikas Sharma, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi, India and Sumedha Chakma, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Civil Engineering Department, New Delhi, India
 
Characterizing offshore aquifer systems on the U.S. Atlantic margin with electromagnetic methods (Invited) (548896)
Chloe Gustafson, Lamont -Doherty Earth Observatory, Palisades, NY, United States, Kerry Key, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Palisades, NY, United States and Robert L Evans, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, United States
 
Estimates of fresh submarine groundwater discharge and nutrient fluxes to the south-eastern Arabian Sea (584373)
Murugan Ramasamy, National Centre for Earth Science Studies, Thiruvananthapuram, India and Suresh Babu D S, National Center for Earth Science Studies, Thiruvananthapuram, India
 
Geologic Control of Submarine Groundwater Discharge in the Mississippi Sound (587695)
Adam D Skarke, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS, United States and Daniel Adcock, Mississippi State Oil & Gas Board, Jackson, MS, United States
 
DETERIORATION IN COASTAL BIODIVERSITY ASSOCIATED TO DEGRADATION SUBMARINE SPRINGS IN THE PENINSULA OF QATAR (606385)
Essam Heggy, University of Southern California, Electrical Engineering - Electrophysics, Los Angeles, CA, United States and Leila Basti, Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology, Tokyo, Japan
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