Seminar

This seminar will give a brief introduction to our recently awarded NSFC Key Program on offshore groundwater. Offshore groundwater is a global phenomenon, but its research is still at its infancy. This Key Program will investigate the occurrence and evolution of the offshore groundwater from the Pearl River Estuary to the adjacent continental shelf in South China Sea and its implication on water resource for coastal cities and environmental issues such as hypoxia and eutrophication. A large part of the current offshore area belonged to the Pearl River flood plain at low sea level and geological formations were saturated with freshwater. It is hypothesized that some fresh or relatively freshwater may be still preserved below seabed. Controlled source electro-magnetic survey will be carried out to decipher the offshore hydrogeological structure. The offshore Quaternary sediment cores, together with a large sum of piston gravity cores will be taken, and the high-resolution analysis of hydro-geochemical, and isotopes, and geo-microbiological parameters from the porewater and sediment of the cores will be performed. The two- and three-dimensional groundwater flow models will be constructed by considering the influences of marine topography, offshore aquifer system heterogeneity, and density difference to investigate the influence of paleo-climate dynamics such as marine transgression/regression, variable precipitation on the occurrence and evolution of offshore groundwater system.

Additional information: Prof. Jimmy JIAO, jjiao@hku.hk