Scientists have discovered a real-life “deadpool” at the bottom of the Red Sea — one that kills almost every creature that swims into it.
The pool — which measures 107,00 square feet, or just over the size of an average Manhattan city block — was discovered by University of Miami researchers with a remote-operated underwater vehicle during a 2020 expedition of the northern pocket of the sea.
Located 1.1 miles beneath the ocean’s surface, the pool is devoid of oxygen and filled with brine — a high-concentration salt solution that proves deadly.
“Any animal that strays into the brine is immediately stunned or killed,” lead researcher Sam Purkis told Live Science, with the publication describing the super salty pools as “among the most extreme environments on Earth.”
“Fish, shrimp and eels appear to use the brine to hunt,” Purkis continued, claiming the “predators” lurk near the deadly pool to “feed on the unlucky” creatures that inadvertently swim into it.
This is not the first brine pool to be discovered by scientists — with oceanographers previously uncovering “a few dozen” of the deadly pools in the Red Sea, the Mediterranean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico over the past 30 years.
However, this finding stunned scientists, because the pool is located so close to land.
Previously, the closest brine pool located in the Red Sea was found at least 15.5 miles offshore. This pool, however, was found just 1.25 miles off the coast of Egypt.
According to researchers, the Red Sea possesses the highest known number of brine pools. They are thought to have been formed from dissolving pockets of minerals deposited up to 23 million years ago.
Back in 2015, marine biologists were thrilled to discover a brine pool more than half a mile below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico.
The pool was dubbed the “Hot Tub Brine Machine” given that it had barely been altered in the tens of millions of years since it was created.