《19 The Mean Sea Level Aquifer》.pdf

19 The Mean Sea Level Aquifer, Malta and Gozo J. MANGION AND M. SAPIANO 19.1 Introduction Mediterranean spanning from the shores of Tunisia in the southwest, to the shores of The Maltese archipelago consists of three Sicily in the north and ending in an abrupt inhabited islands: Malta, Gozo and Comino, escarpment at the edge of the Ionian Sea. and a number of uninhabited islets scattered Late Cretaceous and Tertiary movements around the shoreline of the major islands. Its gave rise to a series of horst and graben struc- location is approximately 96 km south of tures running in a NE–SW direction and hav- Sicily and 290 km north of Tunisia and is ing a predominant regional dip to the located at latitudes 35°48’ and 36°05’ north northeast. and longitudes 14°11’ and 14°35’ east. The total surface area of the archipelago is 2 19.2.1 Local setting approximately 316 km ; with Malta and Gozo, the two largest islands, occupying 246 The geology of the Maltese islands com- 2 and 67 km , respectively. prises a succession of Tertiary limestones The islands are typical examples of coastal and marls with scarce Quaternary deposits. carbonate aquifers, and thus representative Essentially, the islands are geologically made of the coastal limestone areas of Southern up of a core of clays and marls, the Blue Clay Europe, where limestones, often deeply and the Globigerina Limestone