Microbes in these dense, salty depressions thrive under extreme conditions.
Rare deep-sea brine pools discovered in the Red Sea may hold clues to environmental upheavals in the region that span millennia, and could even shed light on the origins of life on Earth, a new study finds.
These pools might also yield microbial discoveries that could contribute to the development of novel medicines, Purkis added. Until now, all known deep-sea brine pools in the Red Sea were located at least 15.5 miles offshore. Now, scientists have discovered the first such pools in the Gulf of Aqaba, a northern pocket of the Red Sea, where the submerged salty lakes lie just 1.25 miles from shore.
"At this great depth, there is ordinarily not much life on the seabed," Purkis said."However, the brine pools are a rich oasis of life. Thick carpets of microbes support a diverse suite of animals." What happens in a brine pool, stays in a brine poolBecause the brine lacks oxygen, the pool keeps out the usual animals that live in and on the seabed, such as burrowing shrimp, worms and mollusks."Ordinarily, these animals bioturbate or churn up the seabed, disturbing the sediments that accumulate there," Purkis said."Not so with the brine pools. Here, any sedimentary layers that settle to the bed of the brine pool remain exquisitely intact.
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