A large pocket of fresh water that was sucked down into Earth’s crust 6 million years ago is still buried deep below a mountain range in Sicily, new research has found.
The fresh water likely became trapped underground during the Messinian salinity crisis, when the Mediterranean Sea dried up following a global cooling event that locked ocean water up in ice sheets and glaciers. This event likely exposed the seabed to rainwater that then trickled down into Earth’s crust, according to a study published Nov. 22 in the journal Communications Earth & Environment.
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