Marine geologists have reported the discovery of extensive, natural plumbing systems under  the seafloor between Malta and Sicily, with implications for petroleum exploration and geohazard prediction in the area.

These plumbing systems, known as fluid flow systems, cycle water, gas or petroleum between the earth’s interior, the ocean and the atmosphere.  

Aaron Micallef, Christian Berndt and Godwin Debono in a statement said they had used acoustic data to identify two types of fluid flow systems.  The first type is shallow and consists of the seepage of recently formed methane gas. 

The second type is probably formed by the leakage of petroleum from deep and old reservoirs via discontinuities in the rock.

"The implications of this discovery are important. Firstly it shows that petroleum reservoirs within the region may have been breached, which would explain why the search for commercial quantities of petroleum to the north of Malta has proven unsuccessful.

"Secondly, shallow gas is known to make the seafloor unstable, and thus it poses a potential hazard to seafloor infrastructures and coastal communities in the form of seafloor landslides and associated tsunamis.

"Thirdly, seeping gas is the primary energy source for chemosynthetic communities, a special type of organisms that are known to control greenhouse gases and create breeding grounds for fish. The study indicates where these geohazards and chemosynthetic communities may occur," they said.

Dr Micallef, Prof. Berndt and Dr Debono worked in conjunction with IFM-GEOMAR, Germany. Funding was provided by the University of Malta and IFM-GEOMAR.

The study has just been published in the journal ‘Marine Geology’