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September 17, 2020: Brine Pool

During a Exploration of the Gulf of Mexico 2014 dive to search for cold seeps at a depth of 1,260 meters (4,135 feet), the team discovered a large brine pool with a number of islands surrounded by carbonate outcrops. Around the shores of the brine pool were anemones, fish, corals, sea stars, crustaceans, and tubeworms.

Image courtesy of the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, Exploration of the Gulf of Mexico 2014. Download larger version (jpg, 1.3 MB).

During an Exploration of the Gulf of Mexico 2014 dive to search for cold seeps at a depth of 1,260 meters (4,135 feet), the team discovered a large brine pool with a number of islands surrounded by carbonate outcrops. Around the shores of the brine pool were anemones, fish, corals, sea stars, crustaceans, and tubeworms.

The presence of dense, highly concentrated brine on the Gulf of Mexico seafloor is a result of unique geologic processes in the region. Because brine contains significantly more salt than surrounding seawater, it is denser, sinking as it flows along the seafloor, often collecting in massive pools.

Learn more about brine pools in this mission log, “A Waterfall Under the Sea.”