Deadly Pool at the Bottom of the Red Sea Kills Almost Anything That Enters It

Scientists had found rare deep-sea brine pools in the Red Sea that could have provided deeper insights into environmental changes and the origins of life on Earth. This deadly pool was discovered by researchers from the University of Miami using a remote-operated underwater vehicle during a 2020 expedition in the northern part of the sea. They found that the pool spanned 107,000 square feet and was located 1.1 miles below the ocean's surface, with no traces of oxygen.

Lead researcher Sam Purkis told Live Science , "Deep-sea brine pools were a great analog for the early Earth and, despite being devoid of oxygen and hypersaline, were teeming with a rich community of so-called 'extremophile' microbes. Studying this community hence allowed a glimpse into the sort of conditions where life first appeared on our planet, and might have guided the search for life on other 'water worlds' in our solar system and beyond." A brine pool was essentially a depression on the seabed filled with extremely salty water and other chemicals, with salinity levels about three to eight times higher than the surrounding ocean.

However, this was not the first time researchers had discovered a brine pool. Knewz.com noted that many have been found in the Red Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Gulf of Mexico over the past 30 years. Purkis further explained, "Any animal that strayed into the brine was immediately stunned or killed. Fish, shrimp, and eels appeared to use the brine to hunt, and predators lurked near the deadly pool to feed on the unlucky creatures that inadvertently swam into it."

Recently, scientists discovered new brine pools in the Gulf of Aqaba, unusually close to the shore, as most were typically far from land. These new pools called the NEOM Brine Pools, were named after the Saudi company that funded the research. The research also suggested that major floods and tsunamis might have occurred periodically over the past 1,000 years in the Gulf of Aqaba region.

During their expedition, divers captured stunning footage of an eel entering the brine pool in search of food, as reported by OceanX . In the video, the toxic conditions caused the eel to spasm immediately, but it recovered after floating out of the deadly water. The team also discovered giant methane bubbles, the size of basketballs, erupting from the ocean floor.

Researchers further believed that the Red Sea had one of the largest concentrations of known brine pools. In 2015, marine biologists were excited to find a brine pool more than half a mile deep in the Gulf of Mexico. They named it the "Hot Tub Brine Machine" because it had remained unchanged for millions of years. The research findings, published in the journal Communications Earth and Environment , suggested that the unique microbes in these pools could help develop new medicines, as some of them possessed antibacterial and anticancer properties.

Purkis shared, "We aimed to work with the other countries bordering the Gulf of Aqaba to broaden the assessment of earthquake and tsunami risk. In addition, we hoped to return to the brine pools with more advanced coring equipment to extend our research beyond 1,000 years, deeper into antiquity."