Brine Pools:
Scientists recently discovered a deadly secret lurking beneath the Red Sea, brine pools so extreme that they instantly kill or stun any marine life that enters.
- Brine pools are the lakes of hypersaline, anoxic (oxygen-lacking) water that form on the seafloor.
- They are often referred to as “underwater lakes” or “brine lakes” because they appear as distinct pools, separate from the surrounding seawater due to their high salinity and density.
- The water in the brine pool is filtered through salt sediments.
- The deepest-known brine pool lies in the Orca Basin in the Gulf of Mexico, some 2,200 m below sea level.
- This depression is filled with water that has a salt content of around 300 g/litre, around eight times saltier than the Gulf itself.
- The salinity of these pools is so great that they are toxic to most sea life, but certain highly adapted chemosynthetic organisms have found ways to survive and even thrive on the shores of these undersea lakes.
