Key Facts About Brine Pools

Brine Pools Latest News

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.

About Brine Pools

• Brine pools are lakes of hypersaline, anoxic (oxygen-lacking) lakes that form on the seafloor, their high salt content making them denser than the surrounding ocean. 
• 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 being filtered through salt sediments, and the water is so salty that it can’t mix with the seawater around it, and therefore creates its own body of water with a distinct surface.
• The deepest-known brine pool lies in the Orca Basin in the Gulf of Mexico, some 2,200 m below sea level. 
  • This 7 x 21 km (4 x 13 mi) depression is filled with water that has a salt content of around 300 g/litre (48 oz per gallon), 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.

Brine Pools FAQs

Q1. What is a brine pool?

Ans. A brine pool is a dense, salty body of water that forms in a depression on the ocean floor

Q2. Do brine pools have oxygen?

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Ans. No, brine pools are typically anoxic, meaning they have very little or no oxygen. 

Q3. Are brine pools hot?

Ans. Brine pools are not necessarily hot, but they can have elevated temperatures depending on their location.

Source: TN