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Science 24 June 1977:
Vol. 196. no. 4297, pp. 1443 - 1446
DOI: 10.1126/science.196.4297.1443
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Articles

Anoxic, Hypersaline Basin in the Northern Gulf of Mexico

ROBERT F. SHOKES 1, PETER K. TRABANT 1, BOB J. PRESLEY 1, and DAVID F. REID 2

1 Department of Oceanography, Texas A&M University, College Station 77843
2 Code 334, Naval Ocean Research and Development Activity, Bay St. Louis, Mississippi 39520

A 400-square-kilometer depression in the continental slope of the northern Gulf of Mexico (approximately 27°N, 91°W) has been found to contain anoxic, hypersaline (sim250 grams per kilogram) water in the bottom 200 meters. The interface between the brine and overlying seawater acts as a midwater seismic reflector similar to those seen in the Red Sea. The bulk chemical composition of the brine is similar to that from the Red Sea, but differences between the two in both heat content and geomorphological setting indicate different modes of origin.

Submitted on December 6, 1976
Revised on January 26, 1977


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