The BRIDGES expedition begins to explore the ancient land bridge connecting Sicily and Malta

Between late 2025 and early 2026, a new oceanographic campaign will begin aboard the research vessel R/V Gaia Blu of the National Research Council of Italy (CNR). The aim of the mission is to identify the remains of an ancient landmass that once acted as a bridge between south-eastern Sicily and the present-day islands of Malta and Gozo.

The project, named BRIDGES, stems from a collaboration between researchers from the Institute of Marine Sciences of the CNR (Cnr-Ismar), the National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics (OGS), and the University of Malta. The two Principal Investigators of the campaign are Maria Filomena Loreto (Cnr-Ismar) and Emanuele Lodolo (OGS). The expedition will take place aboard the ship Gaia Blu from 29 December 2025 to 7 January 2026.

During the last Ice Age, around 22,000 years ago, when sea level was approximately 120 metres lower than it is today, large areas between Sicily and Malta were dry land, forming a proper natural corridor that animals - and possibly primitive humans - could have used to move between the two regions, thereby facilitating migratory flows. This campaign represents a major opportunity for both Italy and Malta to investigate the area and gain a better understanding of that ancient environment.

The expedition BRIDGES will employ state-of-the-art mapping equipment to reconstruct both the present and past morphology of the seabed, identify ancient valleys and former coastlines, and collect important sediment samples.