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October 2, 2021: Mussels

While exploring Hidalgo Basin during the Gulf of Mexico 2018 expedition, we came across a small brine pool, approximately 1.2 meters (3.9 feet) in diameter, in the bottom of a depression that also contained bacterial mats, exposed rock, and dead and alive mussels, like those pictured here.

Image courtesy of NOAA Ocean Exploration, Gulf of Mexico 2018. Download larger version (jpg, 1.4 MB).

While exploring Hidalgo Basin during the Gulf of Mexico 2018 expedition, we came across a small brine pool, approximately 1.2 meters (3.9 feet) in diameter, in the bottom of a depression that also contained bacterial mats, exposed rock, and dead and alive mussels, like those pictured here. The team also observed long, blue-gray-black streaks of stained sediment on the otherwise tan-colored seafloor slope above the brine pool. This stained sediment seemed to trace the path of flowing brine from a source above, down the slope, and into the pool below—an undersea brine waterfall.