During a four-week trip, the team of experts discovered extremely salty puddles in the Red Sea’s Aqaba Bay.
It is a salt lake of death that forms on the seabed, where the salinity is extremely high. They have the harshest habitat on earth, completely starved of oxygen and can kill any creature that unfortunately swims in.
It is known that these submerged saltwater lakes are only about 2km from the shore.
Professor Sam Purkis from Marine Geosciences at the University of Miami, USA, and his team discovered this cluster of “death” lakes while traveling by the OceanXplorer ship of OceanX ocean exploration organization. This is an expedition to explore the Red Sea coast of Saudi Arabia. This area has received little attention in the past.
Using remote-controlled underwater vehicles, the team found saltwater pools 1.77km below the surface of the Red Sea. The “death” lake is named NEOM, with the largest lake measuring about 10,000 square meters, while three smaller lakes have an area of less than 10 square meters.
“At these depths there’s usually not much life on the seafloor, but saltwater lakes are rich oases of life. Thick carpets of bacteria support a wide range of animals.”
“It is noteworthy that shrimp, eel, fish, seem to use this super salty lake to hunt. The water in the lake has high salinity and lack of oxygen, any animal that unfortunately swims in it will be stunned or confused. die.
Predators often hide near lakes, seeking to eat less fortunate animals,” added Prof Purkis.
Currently, there are not many large saltwater lakes in the world. Only three seas have salt lakes: the Gulf of Mexico, the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. In particular, the Red Sea has the highest number of salt water lakes in the world. The latest discovery by expert Purkis and his team plays an important role in major infrastructure projects in the coastal area of the Gulf of Aqaba.
With a length of about 1,900km and the widest place over 300km, the Red Sea has a maximum depth of 2,500m, home to more than 1,000 species of invertebrates and 200 species of hard and soft corals.
