Posted on 09/21/2007 3:05:08 PM PDT by blam
Expedition to drill ancient mega-lake gathers pace
12:41 21 September 2007
NewScientist.com news service
Catherine Brahic
An expedition to seek out a huge underground pocket of ancient water in Darfur, Sudan, is being prepared by geologists.
About 100 metres beneath the arid sands in the north-west of the region there just might be the makings of an oasis – in the form of a hidden mega-lake, discovered in April 2007 using satellite imagery.
The lake could provide much-needed relief to the war-torn African region, believe several UN agencies, the government of Sudan, and non- governmental organisations, which are backing the project.
The "1000 wells for Darfur" initiative was launched by the Sudanese government in July, seeking to raise money to exploit the underground water. In the first instance, this initiative plans to drill up to four wells, reaching between 30 and 100 metres deep.
"It is stored water from the wet times," says Farouk El-Baz, director of the Center for Remote Sensing at Boston University, US, who discovered the ancient lake with colleague Eman Ghoneim. "During the past half a million years there were six episodes of wet climate in the Sahara. The last one lasted from 5000 to 11000 years ago. It rained like hell."
During the wet periods, water ran down mountainsides to form rivers whose beds are now deep under the Saharan dunes. The water transformed the Saharan country into a lush, green display, and collected in vast lakes.
And although the times are dry again, signs of the wet periods remain – in huge stores of ancient water stored between 100 and 1000 metres beneath the sands, El-Baz says.
Environmental crisis
El-Baz is setting out to see if he can find water beneath the sands of the war-torn region in November.
(Excerpt) Read more at environment.newscientist.com ...
The researchers identified the dark line (seen as a vertical line in the centre of this image) as the shoreline of an ancient lake; here, the radar image is overlaid with a topography that shows depressions in blue and reveals a very small lake next to the mega-lake (Image: Boston University Center for Remote Sensing / Ghoneim)
It takes a national initiative to drill a 90’ well? Huh?
If it was there and the water didn’t have an exit, it is salt water.
That’s about 5,000 dollar expedition in Texas. I wonder how many millions they will spend on it?
Exactly. Fossil brine.
However if there is a small lake there now and it is fresh, maybe not.
The lake could provide much-needed relief to the war-torn African region, believe several UN agencies, the government of Sudan, and non- governmental organisations, which are backing the project.those un dumbasses don't know nothin. they have been butchering each other over there Forever, over DESERT...
what the hell do you think they'll do for green earth???
they'll prolly either just waste it in a few years or figgure out a way to poison it so nobody can use it anyway.
That 100 meters must be incorrect.
“During the past half a million years there were six episodes of wet climate in the Sahara. The last one lasted from 5000 to 11000 years ago. It rained like hell.”
Sounds like the climate changed, several times. Musta been caused by the the greenhouse gas emissions from the caveman’s cars, factories, and powerplants.
With the rotten luck those poor poor people in Darfur have been having it isn’t something useful like fresh water. It’s just oil...
I bet there wasn’t much Arctic and Antarctic ice either during these time periods either.
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