The Mediterranean Sea recorded a record increase in temperature in 2023

During 2023, the Mediterranean Sea recorded temperatures that reached the highest thermal value in modern history. The increase of over 1°C in the average surface temperature in 25 years, progressively increasing since 2013 in the southern Tyrrhenian Sea, extending towards the north, and the warming of the deeper layers, up to 800 meters, are the worrying data that emerge from the activities conducted by ENEA and INGV as part of the MACMAP project and presented on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the activity of measuring the temperature of the waters of the Ligurian and Tyrrhenian seas along the Genoa-Palermo route, in collaboration with GNV, the ferry company of the MSC Group. In addition to the increase in average surface temperature, the “thermal photography” of the Mediterranean, carried out in 100 campaigns during which over 3 thousand probes were launched, also highlights an increase in the deeper layers (100-450 metres: +0.4 – +0.6°C; 450 -800 m: +0.3 – +0.5°C).,

Furthermore, from the analysis of the measures it emerges that between 2013 and 2016, warming was above 0.4 °C, followed by a slight decrease and a stationary period in the following years, before starting to progressively increase again from 2021 until September 2023when it reached its maximum. For an indication of the extent of the phenomenon, both the short time span in which this variation occurred and the fact that to induce the temperature increase measured between 2015 and 2023 in the layer between 200 and 800 m depth in the Tyrrhenian Sea, an amount of energy equal to tens of times the electricity consumption in Italy in one year would be required.

“The historical series of temperature data along the same route is crucial for climate studies because it allows us to evaluate the temporal evolution, highlighting the possible variations and therefore understanding whether over time there has been a warming or cooling along the water column in the monitored area“, explain the ENEA researchers, including Franco Reseghettirecently retired and who personally created the campaigns.

“This collaboration is part of GNV’s broader sustainability strategy through which we intend, among other things, to make our active contribution to preserving biodiversity and the marine ecosystem. In fact, we hope there is a way to further strengthen this project by bringing it to the other routes operated by our Company in the Mediterranean. The long-term goal is to use the data collected for an increasingly better management of our ships by optimizing, for example, the maintenance of hulls and propellers“, says Ivana Melillo, Head of Energy Efficiency at GNV.

“What does the near future hold? The indications of the available models favor a possible further increase in water temperatures, but the veracity of these predictions can only be confirmed by the measurements that the actors of this twenty-five year activity have every intention of continuing to carry out, starting from the hundredth campaign scheduled for next December“, declares Simona Simoncelli, INGV researcher.