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Information about Brine Pool

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NOAA rendering of a brine pool in the Gulf of Mexico.


Brine pools are large areas of brine on the ocean basin. These pools are concentrations of water having an extremely high salinity as compared to the surrounding ocean, caused by the motion of large salt deposits through salt tectonics. Methane is also in high concentration in these areas, providing energy by the process of chemosynthesis to creatures which live in the pool's vicinity. These creatures are often extremophiles.[1]

Characteristics of brine pools

Brine pools are considered "lakes" within the ocean by many oceanographers. This is due to the high salinity of the water in the pool, which prevents water of lower salinity from entering and creates a distinct surface and shoreline for the pool.[2]

Support of life

Cold seep activity often coincides with the location of a brine pool. Methane released by the seep is processed by bacteria, which have a symbiotic relationship with mussels at the edge of the pool. This ecosystem is entirely dependent on chemical energy, and, unlike almost all other life on Earth, has no reliance on energy from the sun. [3]

Effect on submarines

Submarines which come across brine pools float on top, creating ripples that cause the surrounding habitat, the "shore", to bob up and down. [4]

References

Brine is water saturated or nearly saturated with salt (NaCl). It is used (now less popular than historically) to preserve vegetables, fish, and meat. Brine is also commonly used to age Feta cheese.
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The seabed (also sea floor , seafloor, or ocean floor) is the bottom of the ocean. At the bottom of the continental slope is the continental rise, which is caused by sediment cascading down the continental slope.
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Salinity is the saltiness or dissolved salt content of a body of water. Salinity in Australian English and North American English may refer to salt in soil (see soil salination).

Definition


Water salinity
Fresh water Brackish water Saline water Brine
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For sodium in the diet, see salt.


Sodium chloride, also known as common salt, table salt, or halite, is a chemical compound with the formula NaCl.
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Salt tectonics is the process by which large deposits of salt are moved by geological forces. These movements of salt deposits have effects on sedimentation and hydrocarbon generation.
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energy (from the Greek ενεργός, energos, "active, working")[1] is a scalar physical quantity that is a property of objects and systems of objects which is conserved by nature.
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Chemosynthesis is the biological conversion of 1-carbon molecules (usually carbon dioxide or methane) and nutrients into organic matter using the oxidation of inorganic molecules (e.g.
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An extremophile is an organism that thrives in and may even require physically or geochemically extreme conditions that are detrimental to the majority of life on Earth.

Most extremophiles are microbes.
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Water is a common chemical substance that is essential to all known forms of life.[1] In typical usage, water refers only to its liquid form or state, but the substance also has a solid state, ice, and a gaseous state, water vapor.
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cold seep (sometimes called a cold vent) is an area of the ocean floor where hydrogen sulfide, methane and other hydrocarbon-rich fluid seepage occurs. Cold seeps are distinct from hydrothermal vents: the former's emissions are of the same temperature as the surrounding
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Methane is a chemical compound with the molecular formula CH4. It is the simplest alkane, and the principal component of natural gas. Methane's bond angles are 109.
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Bacteria

Phyla

Actinobacteria
Aquificae
Chlamydiae
Bacteroidetes/Chlorobi
Chloroflexi
Chrysiogenetes
Cyanobacteria
Deferribacteres
Deinococcus-Thermus
Dictyoglomi
Fibrobacteres/Acidobacteria
Firmicutes
Fusobacteria
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symbiosis (from the Greek: συμ, sym, "with"; and βίοσίς, biosis, "living") can be used to describe various degrees of close relationship between organisms of different species.
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mussel is used for members of several different families of clams (bivalve molluscs) from both saltwater and freshwater habitats. "Mussel" is a loose and inaccurate term, but it has historically been applied to those families of clams where the shell is longer than it is wide,
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The Sun

Observation data
Mean distance
from Earth 1.4961011 m
(8.31 min at light speed)
Visual brightness (V) −26.74m [1]
Absolute magnitude 4.
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submarine is a watercraft that can operate underwater. Military submarines were first widely used in World War I and are used by all major navies today. Civilian submarines and submersibles are used for scientific work at depths too great for human divers.
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