Science & Technology

'Jacuzzi of Despair' found in Gulf of Mexico

By T.K. Randall
May 5, 2016 ·  9 comments

Very few life forms can survive in the salty pool. Image Credit: NOAA The pool is thought to contain four or five times as much salt as the surrounding ocean and is so inhospitable that it will kill just about any sea creature unfortunate enough to wander in to it.

It is so dense that it sits isolated on the ocean floor where a toxic concoction of chemicals such as methane gas and hydrogen sulfide stop it from mixing with the regular seawater around it.

There is even a nearby river of brine which, like the pool, is believed to have been formed by seawater seeping through cracks and mixing with existing salt deposits below the seabed."You go down into the bottom of the ocean and you are looking at a lake or a river flowing," said associate professor of biology Erik Cordes. "It feels like you are not on this world. "

By studying extreme environments like this one scientists are able to get a better idea of what life forms might be able to survive in similarly hostile places on other worlds.

"There's a lot of people looking at these extreme habitats on Earth as models for what we might discover when we go to other planets," said Cordes. "The technology development in the deep sea is definitely going to be applied to the worlds beyond our own."

Source: Discovery News | Comments (9)

Tags: Salt, Gulf of Mexico