THE saltiest water ever found in a marine environment lies 3.6 kilometres
beneath the surface of the Mediterranean off the southwest coast of Crete. The
water, which is a dense solution of magnesium chloride, has been found in a
basin covering about 7.5 square kilometres.
Researchers from Germany, Britain and Italy report in this week鈥檚
Nature (vol 387, p 31) that they discovered the salty basin during sonar
observations. 鈥淚t is about a third more dense than normal seawater,鈥� says Graham
Westbrook of the University of Birmingham, one of the team.
Westbrook suspects that the magnesium salts formed about 5 or 6 million years
ago, when the eastern Mediterranean evaporated to leave dry land. They later
dissolved again when the Mediterranean refilled and remained near the
seabed.
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