As finding fresh water continues to become a dangerous and scarce search, scientists have come up with a promising new theory to track down water - both on Earth and Mars, Press Trust of India reported.
With regions like India and China being in need of fresh water, the heavily populated countries might just be helped through the vital new theory which aims to secure Earth's fresh water supplies.
Apart from Earth, other planets might also be assisted in the search for fresh water through the latest Earth-based groundwater theories, Professor Craig Simmons of the National Centre for Groundwater Research and Training (NCGRT) and Flinders University said.
According to PTI, "Simmons and his colleagues have been working on a theory that groundwater flows faster when it contains salt, heat, radioactive waste or contaminated liquids from landfills - all of which increase the water's density and hence the speed it travels downwards."
"When a heavier groundwater layer sits on top of a layer of clean fresh water, it will sink because of gravity," said Simmons. "Similarly, warmer water that's less dense than cold water rises to the top. This rapid mixing caused by varying water densities appears to drive groundwater much faster than previously thought."
When seawater intrudes into coastal aquifers, when polluted water escapes from landfills, when radioactive waste leaches out of underground repositories, in geothermal energy production and deep carbon storage, and in the movement of groundwater underneath salt lakes, density effects can be viewed, Simmons said.
"We can model where and how fast contaminated or saline water will travel, and so try to prevent it from polluting nearby fresh aquifers which people rely on for drinking or domestic use."
"This is vital to securing the Earth's fresh water supplies, especially in heavily populated regions like China, India, the Middle-East and North America where they are already greatly stressed," said Simmons.
The freezing and thawing of salt water on Mars was applied the same theory by U.S. scientists to describe "some of the water phenomena that Mars rovers are now seeing on the Red Planet," PTI reported.
"The search for water on Mars is part of the search for life, which requires water to survive," Simmons said.
"Various studies as well as spacecraft and satellite observations hint that water exists beneath Mars's icy crust, and in this latest study, the scientists have found evidence of water - in the form of ice and brine - at its equator."
"As the subsurface temperatures of the Red Planet are above the melting point of water, water exists as liquid beneath the ground. The scientists speculate that this warm water travels up from the depths of Mars to the surface, bringing salt with it as it rises. It then freezes due to the extreme cold," said Simmons.
The study was published in Journal of Geophysical research.
