Geologist Peter Gatt has raised suspicions that Malta’s geological map has been tampered with.
In two posts on Facebook, Gatt wrote that the area surrounding the home of Miriam Pace, which collapsed in 2020, was marked as being middle globigerina (brown) in 1993. But, in the updated 2022 map, the same area became lower globigerina (yellow).
The red circle on the two maps shows the area around Miriam Pace's former home (now collapsed) and the St Venera Tunnel road cut.
Indisputable evidence that this area is Middle Globigerina comes from the St Venera Tunnel road cut just 400 metres away, which makes it clear that the 1993 map was correct, Gatt writes.
He noted that there is a significant difference between Lower Globigerina (from which we get our dimension stone) and Middle Globigerina Limestone, a friable rock with a case history of several areas collapsing during rock excavation.
Is this “official tampering of evidence?”, he asked in a post uploaded on Wednesday.
In a previous post, Gatt said that late last year, the Continental Shelf Department 'updated' the Geological map of Malta. The Malta Chamber of Geologists had issued a press release informing the public about the errors and omissions in this 'updated' map.
A look at the area of the road cut leading to the St Venera Tunnel (going from Attard to Sliema side) shows the classical stratigraphy that exposes the Middle Globigerina Limestone at the surface.
However, in the new 'updated' map, the surface of the road cut is shown as Lower Globigerina. This marks a change from all the previous geological maps which always showed this area to be Middle Globigerina.
“Why would anyone introduce such an 'error' when the road cut clearly shows the classic stratigraphy showing Lower Globigerina overlain by the Phosphorite bed and topped by Middle Globigerina?” he wrote.
“Is it a coincidence that about 400 metres away from the road cut is Miriam Pace's former home, which is now ALSO shown to be located over Lower Globigerina Limestone when previous maps showed it to be within the Middle Globigerina Limestone!?
“The difference between the two rocks is significant when it comes to rock excavation (Middle Globigerina is much weaker).
“Tampering of geological maps?” he asked, again.