The bottomless 'jacuzzi of despair' that kills almost anything that swims into it: Researchers reveal massive brine pool off the coast of New Orleans
- Researchers first discovered massive brine pool in 2015 using a robosub
- Now the first hi-resolution map of it has been revealed
- The 19C circular pool is about 100 feet in circumference
- Lies nearly 3,300 feet below the surface of the Gulf
- Contains water four or five times saltier than the surrounding seawater
It is known as the 'jacuzzi of death' - and is one of the oddest places on the planet.
Researchers first discovered a massive brine pool under the Gulf on Mexico in 2014 using a robosub.
Now, they have returned to create the first high resolution map of the area - and say it could hold the key to finding life on other planets.
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The first high resolution map of the 'jacuzzi of despair' that kills almost anything that swims into it. The circular pool - about 100 feet in circumference and about 12 feet deep - lies nearly 3,300 feet below the surface of the Gulf. This image was created from 2,000 stills taken by a robosub.
'On the last leg of these seafloor hydrocarbon community investigations, we focused on a larger brine pool dubbed the 'Jacuzzi of Despair,' in reference to its warm temperature (19°C) and high salt content—which can be fatal to many macrofauna unlucky enough to fall in (we observed large dead isopods and crabs that had been preserved along the edge of the brine pool),' the researchers wrote in Oceanography.
'This crater-like, circular, brine-filled pool rose 3 m above the surrounding seafloor, and brine was spilling out on one side in a spectacular 'waterfall.'
'It was one of the most amazing things in the deep sea,' Erik Cordes, associate professor of biology at Temple University who discovered the site along with several colleagues, and published a report on the findings in the journal Oceanography, told Discovery News after a previous visit to the area.
'You go down into the bottom of the ocean and you are looking at a lake or a river flowing.
'It feels like you are not on this world.'
Cordes - who studies deep-sea corals - and others first found the formations in 2014 using a remotely-operated underwater robot called Hercules.
They returned the following year with the three-person research sub Alvin to get a closer look.
Now, their latest study has been published.
The team retrieved some samples of microbial life that are adapted to handle the high salinity and low oxygen levels of the brine pool.
Cordes believes that these creatures could resemble life on planets in our solar system, or beyond.
The team retrieved some samples of microbial life that are adapted to handle the high salinity and low oxygen levels of the brine pool.
A brine pool in the 'jacuzzi of despair', with walls made up of barite.
'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,' Cordes told Seeker in May.
'The technology development in the deep sea is definitely going to be applied to the worlds beyond our own.'
One of the main purposes for revisiting this brine pool was to conduct a high-resolution mapping survey of the area.
'The top layer of the brine pool (surface down to 3 m depth) had very high salinity (80–110 psu) and a temperature of 7.8°C.
'Below this layer, we found dense, hydrocarbon-charged, fluidized mud at a temperature of 19°C,' the team said.
'The sampling line and CTD were lowered ~19 m into the pool but never reached a hard bottom—shedding new light on the nature of these 'bottomless' brine pools.'
One of the main purposes for revisiting this brine pool was to conduct a high-resolution mapping survey of the area.
Large dead isopods and crabs that had been preserved along the edge of the brine pool were spotted by the team.
The preliminary analyses confirmed that the brine pool was saturated with methane.
The team now hope to return to create 3D maps.
'Ongoing analysis of this experimental spectral data, together with high-resolution three-dimensional mapping, will provide a more detailed picture of the physical and biogeochemical processes at work in these extreme environments.
'This information helps us to estimate the amount and extent of microbial processes occurring in such environments and to better understand how these ecosystems are initially formed, how they change over time, and what controls the differences among them that we observed on these and other expeditions.'
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