Suspended Matter in the Red Sea Brines and Its Detection by Light Scattering

Abstract

A dense layer of suspended particulate matter exists below a depth of 1,900m in the Atlantis II Deep in the Red Sea. This layer was detected with a light scattering meter (nephelometer) at two locations within this deep and was found to conform generally to the zone of hot brines. The nepheloid layer scatters light with a constant intensity except for a few very thin internal layers of greater light scattering which correlate with the interface between the different temperature and salinity brines. The intensity of light scattering is found to increase gradually over an interval of eighty meters in the transition zone between the hot brine and the normal Red Sea deep water. The particles which produce the light scattering are interpreted as the colloidal suspensions and mineral precipitates created by the interaction of the reducing, acidic, and metal-containing hot brine with the oxidizing and alkaline overlying normal Red Sea deep water.