London, Sep 30 (IANS) Scientists have found giant craters at the bottom of the Dead Sea, teeming with bug infested fresh water.
The Dead Sea, which lies on the border of Jordan and Israel, owes its barrenness to dense salt levels. The presence of seabed craters has long been suspected. Now divers have confirmed that there are 30 of them at depths of around 100 feet on the seabed.
They were first discovered in 2010 by a diving expedition from the Max Planck Institute in Germany which measured their widths between 33 feet and 43 feet, the Daily Mail reports.
Team member Danny Ionescu said they were a ‘fantastic hot spot for life’. The Dead Sea is extremely murky, with the divers needing to feel for drops on the seafloor to locate the craters.
Ionescu added: ‘When you put your head in (a crater) you cannot see anything – you have to have faith and will to explore.’
He reported very powerful plumes of clear water rising upwards, with the craters containing the same diversity of microscopic life that can be found on rocks in normal sea conditions.
