An unlikely water source
Some of the driest places on Earth sit above an unexpected resource. The magma centres of extinct volcanoes — what we call "boilers" — drive deep processes that generate and trap freshwater far below the surface. The pattern repeats: seventeen such centres, across five continents, share the same underlying mechanism.
Mapping water before drilling
The same remote workflow used for hydrocarbons and minerals works for water: from orbit to drilling coordinates in four stages. That means defining aquifers, depths and volumes before committing to a single exploratory well in terrain where a dry hole is enormously expensive.
From the desert to the steppe
- Wahiba Sands: eight stacked aquifer layers mapped over a 3.6 km baseline, before drilling.
- Gobi Desert: two freshwater streams identified at 270–315 m depth.
- Sahara, for Mauritania's Ministry of Energy: exact drilling coordinates across 1,600 km² of sand.
Where others see nothing, we see water.
Why it matters
Finding water remotely turns months of uncertain field campaigns into a drilling plan with confirmation holes. For governments and operators alike, that is the difference between hoping and knowing.
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