Summary: A groundbreaking discovery of brine pools just over a mile deep in the Gulf of Aqaba has implications for the Biblical Red Sea crossing.
Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. – Exodus 14:21-22 (ESV)
Brine Pools in the Red Sea
In the depths of the Gulf of Aqaba, the proposed Biblical site of the Red Sea crossing, scientists have made a stunning discovery sparking fresh intrigue among both believers and researchers. Extreme brine pools nearly 6,000 feet beneath the surface were found that may have exciting implications extending well beyond geology.
Brine pools in the Gulf of Aqaba are newly charted underwater lakes which contain hypersaline, oxygen-deprived water, just right for preserving ancient environmental records and supporting rare microbial life. These rare and unique pools act as time capsules that hold clues to the past concerning climate and ancient sea conditions, plus possible connections to the Biblical Red Sea crossing.
A First for the Gulf of Aqaba
A recent study published in Nature, details the presence of the rare brine pools recently discovered in the Gulf of Aqaba. “Deep-sea brine pools are formed by the stable accumulation of hypersaline solutions in seabed depressions,” according to the study. Brine pools are unique and harsh environments that are devoid of oxygen and up to 10 times saltier than the surrounding water.
Only three bodies of water host brine pools: the Mediterranean, the Gulf of America (Mexico) and the Red Sea. “Even in these water bodies, brine pools are relatively rare, with only a few tens of discoveries across all three venues,” stated the study. The pools are tiny compared to their host basins, ranging in size from only hundreds of square feet to a few square miles. The Red Sea contains the highest number with at least 25 pool complexes.
The newly discovered pools were found at a depth of just over one mile from the surface and are distinctive for several reasons. They are the first ever found in the Gulf of Aqaba, a narrow extension of the Red Sea bordered by Egypt, Israel, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. This unique part of the sea combines extreme depths, volcanic features, and temperature anomalies.
The pools were named the NEOM Brine Pools after the Saudi development company which funded the expedition. At just 1.2 miles from the coast of Saudi Arabia, they are the closest to shore of any others discovered, with the next closest being over 15 miles.
“Situated as such, the NEOM pools are positioned to receive sediments shed from the coastal zone and therefore have the unique potential to archive historical tsunamis, flashfloods, and seismicity in the Gulf of Aqaba,” according to the study.
What Are Brine Pools?
Brine pools are uninhabitable for most marine life. While mussels can live along the pool’s edge, other sea creatures that enter these inhospitable waters are quickly killed or shocked by toxic chemicals such as hydrogen sulfide and methane. Larger predators looking for an easy meal can be found waiting along the edges of these deadly pools for the next unsuspecting victim.
Dead fish, crabs, amphipods, and various other organisms that ventured too close are found littered around brine pools. These unfortunate organisms are often preserved in the toxic water for years without decay. In one case, researchers found a crab with soft tissue still intact, estimated to have been dead for eight years. Because of this, nicknames such as “death pools” or “pits of despair” have been given to the poisonous pools.
Due to the high concentration of salt, brine pools are denser and heavier than the surrounding water causing them to form puddles on the ocean floor with visible boundary lines separating them from the rest of the seawater.
Brine pools act like lakes within oceans and produce similar effects as above ground water. Ripples from the movement of seawater can be seen on their surfaces similar to wind ripples on regular lakes. Submarines sent for scientific study actually “land” on the pool’s surface, floating like a person can in the salty Dead Sea. The study had to use thrusters to propel the subs below the surface of the brine pools.
Natural Laboratories of Preservation
University of Miami professor and chair of the Department of Marine Geosciences, Dr. Sam Purkis, conducted a six-week expedition relying on remotely operated submersibles and deep-sea probes to explore the Red Sea’s shadowy depths.
Toward the end of a ten-hour dive, the team’s ROV (remotely operated vehicle) revealed a desolate, mud-covered seabed that marked the edge of the first brine pool ever recorded in the region. In total, researchers found one large brine pool covering over 6 miles squared and three minor pools nearby at just under 10 yards squared each.
Formed by highly saline water which seeps from the seafloor, brine pools are incredibly rare as they create a distinct body of water that resists mixing with the surrounding ocean. Even though the pools are lethal for sea life, their pristine conditions serve as natural laboratories of the past preserving millennia of sediment undisturbed.
“Ordinarily, animals disturb the seabed, churning up sediments that accumulate over time,” Purkis explained. “Not so with the brine pools. Here, any sedimentary layers that settle to the bed of the brine pool remain exquisitely intact.” As geological archives, they hold crucial clues about past seismic and climatic events including floods, tsunamis and shifts in regional climate and water conditions.
“Given that these pools were found in a location that had never been reported before, a series of in situ measurements and samples (water, surficial sediment samples, and cores) were collected for the purposes of characterizing the overall physical setting of the pools, their sedimentology, chemistry, and biology,” the study stated.
From the sediment cores, researchers were able to collect a continuous environmental record that stretches back more than 1,000 years. Data from the pools indicated a recurrence of major floods every 25 years and tsunamis roughly once every hundred years. This information is invaluable for understanding past disasters while also predicting future environmental risks.
Despite the harsh environment, researchers did find a hardy community of extremophile microbes, including sulfate-reducing bacteria and prokaryotes capable of surviving in extreme salinity and pressure. These organisms affect the chemical composition of the pools by reducing sulfate levels which were found to be the lowest ever recorded ratios in the Red Sea.
Science and the Bible
This scientific discovery adds a new layer of intrigue to an area already rich in geological, historical, and religious significance. The Gulf of Aqaba is one of the sites that match the Biblical account given in Exodus 14. According to the narrative, God performed a miracle using Moses to part the Red Sea so the Israelites could escape the pursuing Egyptians. After God’s people were safely across, the walls of water crashed back down drowning Pharaoh’s army, chariots and all, in the sea.
[And the Lord said to Moses], Lift up your staff, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the people of Israel may go through the sea on dry ground. And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they shall go in after them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, his chariots, and his horsemen. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I have gotten glory over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen.” – Ex. 14:16-18
Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. The Egyptians pursued and went in after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. And in the morning watch the Lord in the pillar of fire and of cloud looked down on the Egyptian forces and threw the Egyptian forces into a panic, clogging their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily. And the Egyptians said, “Let us flee from before Israel, for the Lord fights for them against the Egyptians.”
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen.” So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its normal course when the morning appeared. And as the Egyptians fled into it, the Lord threw the Egyptians into the midst of the sea. The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen; of all the host of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea, not one of them remained. But the people of Israel walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. – Ex. 14:21-29
Having little to no oxygen, brine pools provide a unique setting for preservation. Most materials, like wood and even bronze, degrade over time in the presence of oxygen, but can be preserved for ages in an oxygen-free environment. This is why many ancient finds come from places like bogs or where artifacts were buried in the mud or by the sediments of a river, etc. Some of the oldest wooden shipwreck remains are at the bottom of the Black Sea in what are called anoxic (lack of oxygen) environments.
One of the claims against the possibility of finding any remains of an Exodus sea crossing (like chariot wheels or parts from Pharaoh’s army at the bottom of the sea) is that all that evidence would have rotted away within decades or certainly centuries of the event. However, if the walls of water were extremely high (as in an Aqaba crossing scenario) then when they came crashing down this would be a perfect situation to bury many of the remains in varying depths of mud, thus preserving them for long periods.
The recent discovery of brine pools at the bottom of the Gulf of Aqaba favors the possibility of preservation. The “saddle” at the Nuweiba crossing site is not as deep as these dead pool finds, but many of the remains could have been pushed to the sides by turbulence and down to the deep chasms on either side of the saddle. This isn’t direct evidence that chariot wheels will be found the brine pools, but rather an interesting scientific find that relates to the investigation.
Conclusion
“Analysis and characterization of the NEOM Brine Pools have resulted in the establishment of the first examples in the greater Red Sea system to be located sufficiently close to the coastline to act as sediment deposition traps for slope processes. Situated as such, the NEOM pools have a unique potential to archive historical tsunamis, flashfloods, and seismicity in the Gulf of Aqaba on millennial timescales,” concluded the study.
“By ascertaining that brine pools form outside the rifting portion of the Red Sea, in the Gulf of Aqaba, we hope to have expanded the notion of how brine pools are formed and where. For the first time, we have also emphasized the value of brine pools as sediment archives, by revealing a multi-phase, multi-event sequence of sedimentary deposits preserved beneath the NEOM pools,” said the researchers.
The presence of these unique pools adds to the mystery of possible Egyptian army remains lingering in the Gulf of Aqaba from the Red Sea crossing. So far no chariot wheels have been found, but the pools have produced tangible evidence of a volatile and complex marine system that may have witnessed, preserved, or even contributed to dramatic natural events in antiquity. Keep Thinking!
TOP PHOTO: Moses and the Children of Israel Crossing the Red Sea. (credit: Henri Frédéric Schopin c. 1855, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
