[neilep (OP)]

Dear Brine Pool Brill Peeps,

This is a Brine Pool:

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Nice isn't it ?

You might think that the left of the piccy are plants and stuff happily living beside the edge of this small lake...

..and you'd be right... However.......this picture is actually taken beneath the sea ? SHOCK !! HORROR !! GASP !!!

Amazing isn't it ?

Here's another :

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So...What is a Brine Pool ?...how come it does not mix with the rest of the sea ?
Why does it attract flora and fauna tourists whom bathe at it's edges ?

I want to know.....and I know ewe do too !!

[DoctorBeaver]

I wonder if for some reason there's a slight difference in the salt or mineral content of the water that makes it slightly heavier.  []

[JimBob]

My dear Beaver, that is the definition of "brine". You are indeed worthy of respect. An honorary Doctoral degree will be issued at our earliest convenience for your astounding ability to state the obvious and make it sound so astoundingly original!

[]

(I do so relish these moments)

THE QUESTION

Brine pools occur for several reasons. One of the most common is the proximity of a layer of salt that gets leached into the water in the pool. The pool must not be disturbed by currents or be on a flat surface. It must be in a depression so that the slow mixture of the salt from higher to lower concentrations is less than the rate at which the salt is leached from the underlaying strata. Some brine pools, especially those near a coast, are fed by salt water springs where the water forming the spring has leeched salt on it way to the location of the springs eruption. In the Gulf of Mexico, some of these can be 20 KM long.

Other brine pools are formed by evaporation of water from the pool at a quicker rate than water entering the pool or the inability of the water to get out once it gets in. An example of the later is the Dead Sea.

There are probably a few other explanations but I am not omniscient as some people around here are. I can, however,  claim to be humble.

[JimBob]

OH - critters at the pool

Brine pools are oceanic "salt licks" so communities of organisms form around them.

[neilep (OP)]

THANK YOU ETH AND MR JIM,

I admire  the brawn of your brain as you break down the facts about brine....Brilliant !!

[JimBob]

beautiful and bountiful blessing of beneficence, my brother.

You are indeed a beatified being.

[DoctorBeaver]

Jimbob - I thank you for the compliment & would like to point out that the pools in question are in the sea which, to the best of my knowledge, are briny. My reply raised the possibility that these pools are MORE briny.  []