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Tough Place to Live

WHOI scientists Virginia Edgcomb and Joan Bernhard led a 2011 expedition in the Mediterranean to investigate one of earth’s harshest environments—Deep Hypersaline Anoxic Basins (DHABs). These seafloor depressions hold water that is low in oxygen and far denser, saltier, and chemically distinct from surrounding seawater. DHABs form when ancient, exposed salt deposits dissolve and the resulting ultra-dense water remains trapped in the basin. DHABs can even look like lakes on land, with “beaches” around their perimeter and a distinct surface. Bernhard, Edgcomb, and their collaborators sampled sediments and water at the interface zone and investigated organisms found in the samples.(Illustration by Jack Cook, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)