Vast Freshwater Reserves Found in the Last Place You'd Look

Australian researchers are agog over the discovery of 120,000 cubic miles of freshwater beneath the ocean floor. The reserves may help quench the world's approaching freshwater crisis.

1 minute read

December 9, 2013, 7:00 AM PST

By Jonathan Nettler @nettsj


"Australian researchers discovered 120,000 cubic miles of freshwater reserves trapped beneath the ocean floor off the coasts off Australia, China, North America and South Africa, per a new study published Thursday in the scientific journal Nature," writes Emily Thomas.

“'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 since 1900,' Dr. Vincent Post, lead study author and senior lecturer at Australia’s Flinders University, told the Agence France-Presse. 'Knowing about these reserves is great news because this volume of water could sustain some regions for decades.'”

Thursday, December 5, 2013 in The Huffington Post

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