Geophysical and Geological Views of Potential Water Resources in the North-Eastern Adriatic Sea

Abstract

The increasing demand for freshwater requires the identification of additional and less-conventional water resources. Amongst these, offshore freshwater systems have been investigated in different parts of the world to provide new opportunities to face increasing water requests. Here we focus on the north-eastern Adriatic Sea, where offshore aquifers could be present as a continuation of onshore ones. Geophysical data, in particular offshore seismic data, and onshore and offshore well data, are interpreted and integrated to characterise the hydrogeological setting via the interpretation of seismo-stratigraphic sequences. We focus our attention on two areas located in the proximity of the Tagliamento and Isonzo deltas. Well and seismic data indicate that the Quaternary sediments, that extend from onshore to offshore areas, are the most promising from an offshore freshwater resources point of view, while the several kilometres thick pre-Quaternary carbonate and terrigenous sequences likely host mainly salty waters.