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A brine pool, sometimes called an underwater lake, deepwater or brine lake, is a volume of brine collected in a seafloor depression. These pools are dense bodies of water that have a salinity that is typically three to eight times greater than the surrounding ocean. Brine pools are commonly found below polar sea ice and in the deep ocean. Those below sea ice form through a process called brine rejection.[1] For deep-sea brine pools, salt is necessary to increase the salinity gradient. The salt can come from one of two processes: the dissolution of large salt deposits through salt tectonics[2] or geothermally-heated brine issued from tectonic spreading centers.[3]
The brine often contains high concentrations of hydrogen sulfide and methane, which provide energy to chemosynthetic organisms that live near the pool. These creatures are often extremophiles and symbionts.[4][5] Deep-sea and polar brine pools are toxic to marine animals due to their high salinity and anoxic properties,[1] which can ultimately lead to toxic shock and possibly death.
- ^ a b Kvitek, Rikk (February 1998). "Black pools of death: Hypoxic, brine-filled ice gouge depressions become lethal traps for benthic organisms in a shallow Arctic embayment". Marine Ecology Progress Series. 162: 1–10. Bibcode:1998MEPS..162....1K. doi:10.3354/meps162001 – via ResearchGate.
- ^ "NOAA Ocean Explorer: Gulf of Mexico 2002". oceanexplorer.noaa.gov. Retrieved 2020-09-28.
- ^ Salem, Mohamed (2017-06-01). "Study of Conrad and Shaban deep brines, Red Sea, using bathymetric, parasound and seismic surveys". NRIAG Journal of Astronomy and Geophysics. 6 (1): 90–96. Bibcode:2017JAsGe...6...90S. doi:10.1016/j.nrjag.2017.04.003. S2CID 132353952.
- ^ Extremophile life near brine pools Archived November 10, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Eder, W; Jahnke, LL; Schmidt, M; Huber, R (July 2001). "Microbial diversity of the brine-seawater interface of the Kebrit Deep, Red Sea, studied via 16S rRNA gene sequences and cultivation methods". Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 67 (7): 3077–85. Bibcode:2001ApEnM..67.3077E. doi:10.1128/AEM.67.7.3077-3085.2001. PMC 92984. PMID 11425725.