In the Gulf of Mexico,
these eruptions also release a super-salty liquid –
brine.
It’s heavier than seawater
and it accumulates in great pools on the seafloor.
It’s difficult to make sense of the sight.
A lake of concentrated saltwater 15 metres deep
at the bottom of the sea.
Around its margin, perhaps even more strangely,
there is a profusion of life.
Giant mussels that can live and grow for a century or more,
pack tightly together,
dwarfing the shrimps and squat lobsters that feed around them.
Cutthroat eels, scavengers,
come to the shores of the brine lake in search of something edible.
Some even venture into the brine.
Spending too long in it
can send an eel into toxic shock.
Its only hope is to rise above it.
It manages to escape.
Others are not so lucky.
The brine embalms their bodies
and the casualties of decades
accumulate around the margins.
