Sep 26 2008Wait, What?: An Underwater Lake

So apparently there are lakes of super-saline water at the bottom of the ocean.

During the Jurassic period the waters here were shallow and became cut off from the ocean. The area soon dried out, leaving a thick layer of salt and other minerals up to 8km thick. When ocean water returned after the region rifted apart, the super-saline layer at the bottom of the Gulf became an underwater lake. Now brine, which is continually released from a rift in the ocean floor, feeds the lake.

Now I know what you're thinking -- there has got to be magic involved. But you're wrong, my friend. This is pure sorcery.

Hit the jump for a longer David Attenborough clip about the lakes.

Lakes... 650ft Beneath the Waves! [environmentalgraffiti]

Thanks to Ben, who once took a girl skinny dipping in the middle of winter and didn't shrink an inch.

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Reader Comments

OOH! Yet another cool thing about Earth! I wouldn't live anywhere else!

So spongebob makes more sense now....

Aw, damn. LSDiesel, you beat me to the punch.

watch for the pepper lakes they find them soon

AN UNDERWATER F***ING LAKE??!!?? YOU F***ING CUNTS, DO YOU THINK I AM STUPID. FOR F***S SAKE, THAT'LL BE LIKE THE AIR IN AIR????

JESUS CHRIST IM GOING TO BE F***ING SICK

Ah I see nic is back and in fine form today.

there is air on air....LOL

Hey nick, you don't fit here. You are trying to be cool but you made 3 mistakes:

#1. Blasphemy
#2. ALL CAPS
#3. You're an annoying a$$hat.

A lake inside a lake.....Is this like those Russian dolls that go one into another? Hollow? Made of wood? Painted with....paint? OK, guess not.....

Wait, What?!?

@8 - Nesting dolls.... So this is a nesting lake? if we look in the bottom of it will we find a pond? and a pool in that?

Journey to the center of the Earth team: "Ugh, yeah, we kinda fell behind schedule, we hit one of those f***ing underwater lakes again..."

cliosguy you cock the point is that it doesnt need to be pointed out and Momboelitist you can f*** off to you dont make the rules you CUNT

Nic man... to much coffee...

I used to be the same way. Now I just smoke pot :) Way better than coffee IMO.

But is it as magical as my training montage from Never Back Down?

nic nic nic.... so much pent up anger and tension. Why don't you go to the bathroom and knock one (or two) off and relieve a little of that stress. I'm jus' sayin'.....

@10 don't forget the puddle in the pool

@14, I smoke pot too ;)

@12 wow someone is having daddy issues.

@11 and 18- you both have the same link in your name are you one person or did that happen by chance?

@20, it happened by chance. I am not gingersnapz.

@18, Go Erowid!!!

nic makes me smile every time. Well, at least now that he's solely spouting obscenities and paranoia instead of a mixture spam and cusses.

And his name is lower case! The whole thing is AWESOME.

yeah sorry i hate my job its winding me up! i would mr mitchell but i just moved here and i cant find any! still at least i know what its like to wake up without feeling like your in a big ball of cotton wool

not that i prefer it or anything

@12, how do you know I don't make the rules? By the way, did school let out early today?

BECAUSE I F***ING SAID SO, F*** YOU AND F*** JESUS TOO

anyway if you did you would never call yourself by a silly name like that

Nic bacon is like an unfunny version of me. And *I* am unfunny myself. So WTF.

This is actually a scene from the movie 'Never Back Down' where the big tough ocean comes along and trys to take over the lake, but the lake wasn't having it.

@2 I was thinking the same thing...

OK, School did let out early.

@28, I don't know if you're new, or your trying to be funny, but seriously, the Never Back Down jokes HAVE to stop.

If they did, that would be like backing down. And you Never Back Down.

Incidently, I don't know my 'trying to be funny' either. I didn't even know I had a 'trying to be funny'

I guess some things don't translate well through small, low quality video. I have no idea why that is supposed to be impressive to look at, because it doesn't look like anything.

I blame Obama for the Never Back Down jokes.

I blame video games.

isn't that nuts? I saw that a few months ago......

So damn cool. Science never seizes to amaze me.

If a bad guy was hiding in that lake, Chuck Norris would still find him and kick his ass and then drown him in the lake in the lake. CUz buoyancy ain't got nothing on Chuck bitches, nothin'! Now f*** off and quit reason this.


Asshole.

Did any of you guys watch the discovery channel in the last 5 years? this is nothing new. the waves yes but there was always water on top of water. in some underwater caves its like that.

Aside from 39 and 40, all these comments have been pumped with fail.
I suggest we just stop coming to this post and wait till next week to argue so as to forget that we(you) all wrote such cruel and retarded things.

Sorry I was trying to be funny. My only funny on the net is to be an ass.
Seriously though, all the comments on here are either Never Back Down jokes, arguments or spelled wrong.

@2 LOL

I HAVE TERRIBLE GAS IT SMELL LIKE BANANAS. SHOULD I PEEL MY OWN ASS TO MAKE IT STOP?

BACON OUT.

heehee the fish looks like it's flying

lol you guys didnt know of under water lagoons :P? i knew about them since i was 8-10 :S im 14 now ¬.¬

#38, the english language still amazes you doesn't it. its 'ceases'. epileptics seize to amaze me. hmm, water in water! novel concept indeed.

that epileptic thing is probably lost on most people. sad. i go teach-a the english now:(

YTMND of "weird squat lobsters" part?

I say i totally believe in it. or at least really like the concept. I've always thought this was the closest to "magic" to me.

Ha! I told my friends SpongeBob having a lake on the seabed wasn't as absurd as a Starfish and a Sponge being that stupid!

I read about underwater lakes in DISCOVER, along with an article on the amazing life at the bottoms of the ocean, and I went searching for video. An underwater lake . . . water too salty for surrounding ocean water to get in and break it up, currents from underground methane pockets that actually cause waves . . . Is anyone else just blown away by this?

And to nic and commentators on nic (myself included, now), find a more productive outlet and use of your time.

It is true, Science has discovered that in the places where two different seas meet, there is a barrier between them. This barrier divides the two seas so that each sea has its own temperature, salinity, and density.

Interesting that the Quran (Muslim Holy Book) talks about this too.

"He is the one who has set free the two kinds of water, one sweet and palatable, and the other salty and bitter. And He has made between them a barrier and a forbidding partition". (Quran, 25:53)
and in some other verse too. Pretty Cool.

This is amazing, surreal and beautiful. We humans like to consider ourselves armed with knowledge, and dominant in everything but nature's beauty like this really just stops me in my tracks. I truly feel insignificant next to the power of our planet's oceans.

Also yeah, Spongebob totally makes more sense now.

GO to F***ing H*** NIC BACON YOUR AN F***ING A**HOLE

@5 yes we do think you're stupid and you proved it to us :)

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