Malta

Malta: A Mediterranean splendor

Ghana Bay

Ghana Bay Malta

When our flight reached the Maltese airspace, I saw a splendid view of a small island surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea. The northern side of the island showed two outcrops and an edgy tapering to the North. Just at some distance from the main island were two smaller islands called Comino and Gozo.

The plane landed and we reached the hotel in time for lunch and had the second half of the day for work. From a geologist's perspective, this place is quite interesting, as the whole island is basically a massive calcium carbonate rock.
 Malta is a small island country. It had been an English naval base during the Second World War, so most of the population here speaks English. The whole country can be traveled length and breadths in a day and is a good scale model to study island bio-geography. 

To understand the present-day geological and geo-chemical setting of Malta, it is essential to know the history of this land in terms of it's land use. Geographically, Malta is in the center of the Mediterranean Sea. It has undergone three war sieges in it's history. It's initial inhabitants included Roman and Arabic people. Maltese, as a language is a mix of both. In terms of heritage, Malta has many beautiful churches, and was one of St John’s bases on his voyages. Malta also hosts a beautiful St. Paul’s cathedral, which is worth a visit.  Through the years, main occupation here used to be agriculture. The vegetation here can be categorized as Mediterranean scrub vegetation.
 Initially, the island constituted of small freshwater streams, but there are none present now. People used up all the terrestrial freshwater for farming and domestic purposes in the past. They then turned to groundwater sources. To support the island population, more water was necessary and ground water abstraction increased to a substantial level. To this note it should also be mentioned that due to over abstraction of groundwater in the past, the entire country does not have any natural freshwater sources left. It is entirely reliant on desalination for its freshwater needs. There are about 4 desalination plants and there is extensive research going on to refine desalination process. Malta has one of the world’s highest population densities. Population here is not the count but amount of people per square acre. The government levies a forty percent surcharge on every taxpayer for freshwater production. They have a saying in Malta “whatever is yellow treat it like mellow, whatever is brown flush it down”. It shows the need and scarcity of water. Being small, this island also faces an issue with it's waste disposal as land filling is not an option. From an earth scientist's point of view, Malta is a good scale model of ecosystem problems. It really made me wonder that these problems in the real sense are going to be our problems soon as our earth no different  than a bigger island in the unknown space. 

A shot from the tip of Ghana Bay.

In a normal functioning, the aquifer would run out of water when over abstracted, but as this island is a massive Calcium Carbonate rock it acted like a sponge and refilled itself with all the surrounding sea water. The ground water got mixed with sea water and when it was abstracted and used for domestic purposes most of the land under agriculture was salinized. Unlike normal beaches most of Southern Maltese beaches are rocky. All throughout the coast line is beautiful, with many coves and clear water with shades of blue and turquoise. It is a tourist hot-spot and offers good holiday environments. It is rivaled by Greece and Cyprus for Mediterranean tourism. Nonetheless it must be complimented for its exceptional Mediterranean food and very hospitable people. Something really noteworthy about Malta is that it is easily navigable. One can cycle or take a bus all over. Majority of the buses in Malta are the 'Routemasters' which gives the place a classic touch. 

Golden bay and the Ghana Bay are two must-see beaches in Malta. Both the sites hold great prospects for tourists as well as Earth Scientists. There are excellent openings for scuba diving. The Fungus Rock and Dwejra Bay on Gozo are really noteworthy in this respect.

Fungus Rock Gozo Island.

But even with all the political and economic storms ahead there is a huge blue horizon to look forward to. 

I really enjoyed my stay and research in Malta, and I hope to see it again sometime in the future. There was a lot to take away in terms of experiences, from the depths of the sea to depths of the problems this country faces.