ROV Hercules Investigates Brine Lakes on the Bottom of the Ocean

During two cruise legs of the 2015 E/V Nautilus field season, the remotely operated vehicle (ROV) Hercules was deployed to examine some of the cold seep features of the deep Gulf of Mexico. Cold seeps are locations where hydrocarbons that are normally trapped deep beneath the seafloor escape into the water column. The hydrocarbons are forced out from the depths by the movement of large salt bodies that developed over the course of several million years as water evaporated from an ancient shallow Gulf of Mexico (Brooks et al., 1987). Shifting of these salt layers produces cracks in the oil-bearing shale that provide pathways for upward migration of oil and gas.