Scary: Scientists Warn of ‘Dead Pool’ in Red Sea That Instantly Kills Anything

Scientists are probing the depths of the Red Sea, uncovering the so-called “dead pool” that might hold clues to the origins of life on Earth. A research team from the University of Miami explored these depths, located between the Arabian Peninsula and Africa, and discovered dense, extremely salty lakes on the seafloor known as “death pools.”

These pools are among the most extreme environments on our planet, characterized by their hypersaline water that contains no oxygen, making them lethal to most marine life that comes into contact with them. Despite this inhospitable environment, these pools host living microbes, offering scientists valuable insights into the early conditions under which life might have started and how life could potentially evolve on other water-rich planets.

Sam Purkis, a professor of marine geosciences at the University of Miami who led the research, shared with Live Science that the current theory suggests life began in similar anoxic, or oxygen-free, conditions deep in the sea. “Deep-sea brine pools are a great analogue for the early Earth and are teeming with a rich community of extremophile microbes,” he noted. These studies provide a window into the conditions where life first emerged on Earth and could help guide the search for extraterrestrial life on other water worlds.

Additionally, these unique ecosystems might be a source of novel medical advancements. Purkis indicated that compounds with antibacterial and anticancer properties have already been isolated from deep-sea microbes living in these brine pools.

Globally, only a handful of these deep-sea brine pools have been discovered, mostly located in the Gulf of Mexico, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Red Sea, with the latter containing the highest number. These pools are thought to have formed from the dissolution of mineral deposits left during the Miocene epoch. Each pool varies in size but can be as large as a square mile (2.6 square kilometers).