Geo (Gio) Rutherford

Yeah.

So many dead fish.

So many dead fish.

Yeah.

Salty and then a lack of oxygen because it doesn't have any kind of introduction of like fresh water or anything.

What is a brine pool?

Oh, have you seen a video of them before, Allie?

Okay, Google it while I tell you about it because brine pools are extra spooky.

We find a lot of them in the Gulf of Mexico because the Gulf of Mexico has this ancient salt deposit beneath the surface.

And what happens is that salt kind of percolates up through what's called salt tectonics, which is kind of cool.

you have this salt kind of come up from the crust and it mixes with the water and it becomes brine, which is heavier than the surrounding ocean, which is already salty.

So you have this extremely salty pool at the bottom of the ocean, which exists there because it's heavier.

it's also anoxic which means it has no oxygen in it and so if any creatures which are dependent on the dissolved oxygen in the ocean water drift into one of these brine pools they end up suffocating it kind of ends up looking like they're getting shocked like there's this famous video of an eel that's like convulsing in a brine pool and it's because it doesn't have any oxygen in that pool

And it's starting to like suffocate essentially.

And so you have all these creatures that go like crabs and lobsters and all these things that go into these brine pools and then never come out again.

And they're kind of preserved.

They're pickled in these brine pools.

And it's kind of fascinating.

So yeah, I love brine pools.

Schneidtempiska.