Lakes Beneath The Ocean
This is a trippy video of an underwater lake. Yes, you read that correctly.
Apparently a long time ago, there was a shallow bay where the Gulf is now. For whatever reason, the bay got cut off and became a lake. This poor lake couldn't sustain itself so it slowly dried up. Once gone, what remained was an 8 kilometer thick bed of salt.
Fast forward to today where the ocean has returned to the area. Only the Gulf of Mexico's salinity level is only about 30 ppt. That's good bit less than the Atlantic and the Pacific. The water in this lake is actually brine, that is, water with a salinity level of 300+ ppt. It weighs so much more than the surrounding water that it behaves as a separate entity.
Apparently a long time ago, there was a shallow bay where the Gulf is now. For whatever reason, the bay got cut off and became a lake. This poor lake couldn't sustain itself so it slowly dried up. Once gone, what remained was an 8 kilometer thick bed of salt.
Fast forward to today where the ocean has returned to the area. Only the Gulf of Mexico's salinity level is only about 30 ppt. That's good bit less than the Atlantic and the Pacific. The water in this lake is actually brine, that is, water with a salinity level of 300+ ppt. It weighs so much more than the surrounding water that it behaves as a separate entity.
1 Comments:
Well written article.
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