The Gulf of Mexico’s salt water lake is known as the “Bath of Despair” due to its extremely toxic conditions. It is so salty that it kills and mummifies almost all animals that swim in it, leaving only bacteria and a few hardy organisms able to survive. During a 2015 expedition to study cold vents in the deep waters of the bay, scientists discovered this deadly lake.
The cold vent, nicknamed the “Bath of Despair,” is located nearly 1,000 meters below the sea surface and has a circumference of 30.5 meters and a depth of 3.7 meters. The brine inside the lake is four times saltier and denser than the surrounding seawater, due to hydrocarbons bubbling up through buried salt slabs. This creates deadly conditions with a temperature of 19 degrees Celsius and high concentrations of hydrogen sulfide and methane.
The lake is surrounded by steep walls with streams of red, yellow, and white minerals, as well as oyster beds. Mussels are some of the few organisms able to survive in the toxic waters of the lake, and they play a role in keeping the lake walls intact. Inside the lake, there are mummies of unfortunate creatures that ventured into the deadly waters and perished.
