There are many examples of submarine springs worldwide. The great Red Snapper sink in the Atlantic Ocean is a discharge point for the Floridian Aquifer of Florida. The Ovacik spring in Ovacik Bay on the south coast of Turkey discharges water from the Taurus Mountains into the sea. Most submarine springs are associated with volcanic and karst terrane.
Many submarine springs are in arid to semi-arid regions where water shortages exist. The precise determination of the presence of submarine springs has been the focus of workers for at least 20 years. The capture of the submarine discharge has been difficult and many proposals have been put forth. The more practical way of utilizing these fresh ground waters is to intercept the water on land in the conduits that channel the water to the sea. For example, Gunay and Elkhatib (1988) suggest "...constructing a gallery extending to great depth and oriented perpendicular to linear fractures and faults to capture the ground-water discharge" to the Ovacik submarine spring. Properly placed, high-capacity wells would likely be a less expensive solution.
AGW utilizes a combination of satellite imagery, aerial photography, marine and terrestrial geophysics to identify the submarine springs and to locate their on-shore conduits. When the on-shore conduits have been located, optimal well sites can be easily located.
Please take a look at some of our case studies dealing with submarine springs.
Gunay, G. and Elkhatib, H., 1988, Hydrogeological investigations of the karst
submarine springs on the Mediterranean Coast of Turkey, by means of remote
sensing techniques, Proceedings of the 21st IAH Congress, Guiling, China, v. 21,
Part 1, pp.474-483.