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Name : Hot tubful of Despair
Location : Off the coast of Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico
Researchers discovered the Hot Tub of Despair during a deep-sea expedition in the Gulf of Mexico in May 2015.
Why it ’s incredible : The saltwater puddle is pepper with the carcasses of animal that were ill-omened enough to enter the deadly water supply .
The " Hot Tub of Despair " is a deadly pool of extremely piquant water at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico . The condition are so toxic , only bacteria and a smattering of beast can survive .
Researchers discovered the hot vat during a 2015 expedition investigating insensate seeps in the astuteness of the Gulf . Cold seeps are places where hydrocarbons — the main constituents of fossil oil and gas — scat from the seafloor and insert the water column . In the Gulf of Mexico , hydrocarbons are forced out by shifting slabs of saltiness in Earth ’s impudence thatformed as body of water evaporatedfrom an ancient sea millions of years ago .
Creatures that fall into the Hot Tub of Despair, such as this crab, rarely make it back out.
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The military expedition team dubbed this particular cold ooze the Hot Tub of Despair after they espy pickled crabs and various other beast lie in numb inside the arena - shaped pool . The seep sits nearly 3,300 feet ( 1,000 meters ) below the undulation and measures 100 feet ( 30.5 K ) in circumference and 12 feet ( 3.7 m ) deep , allot toNautilus Live .
The red-hot tub ’s salty waters , or saltwater , ensue from the hydrocarbons bubbling up through the buried slabs of saltiness , allot to a summary of the expedition bring out in 2016 in the journalOceanography . The brine is up to four time more piquant , and therefore far denser than the saltwater around the cold seep , keep the two from mix .
Creatures that fall into the Hot Tub of Despair, such as this crab, rarely make it back out.
Water temperature inside the pool reach up to 66 degrees Fahrenheit ( 19 degrees Celsius ) , which , together with gamy salinity , creates deathly conditions for most organisms . The brine also contains high levels of atomic number 1 sulfide and methane , which onlycertain creature like musselscan tolerate .
The pond is enclosed by unconscionable " walls " that are encrusted with red , yellow and white mineral flows , as well as mussel beds , according to the summary . " The rim rise pretty sharply , " a research worker said in avideo of the find , which was made using a remotely lock fomite ( ROV ) . " The mussels , they ’ve done a really standup job at keeping the wall intact . "
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In the video , the ROV receive an overflow , where the saltwater inside the pool spills over the rim like a waterfall . The researchers also level out " embalmed " creatures inside the pool .
Animals likely engineered the puddle , one researcher explains in the video . " ab initio , believably what happens is fluid starts to erupt from the seafloor , " the research worker tell . " And then you get biological communities that start taking advantage of that . "
