NO. 1 EMERY AND HULSEMANN: SUBMARINE CANYONS 63 



Accordingly, it should occasion no great surprise to learn that the deep 

 aquifers still discharge fresh water, as did the shallow ones during the 

 nineteenth century. The quantity of discharge must be small compared 

 with the volume of sea water within the canyons. Accordingly, one 

 should not expect to detect it through water analyses, except perhaps 

 of interstitial waters of axial sands or by visual inspection from deep- 

 diving vehicles. The finding of fresh-water worms and the absence of 

 marine animals in more than a score of axial sediment samples serves 

 as a clear indication of seaward loss of water from deep aquifers. Prob- 

 ably most of the loss of fresh water from these aquifers occurs through 

 the canyons because they represent the points of outcrop of aquifers 

 nearest land and thus are the focal points of the steepest pressure 

 gradients. 



