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PHYSICOCHEMICAL LIMNOLOGY AND GEOLOGY OF A MEROMICTIC POND ON THE RED SEA SHORE 1
Author(s) -
Eckstein Yoram
Publication year - 1970
Publication title -
limnology and oceanography
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.7
H-Index - 197
eISSN - 1939-5590
pISSN - 0024-3590
DOI - 10.4319/lo.1970.15.3.0363
Subject(s) - seawater , halite , limnology , oceanography , geology , gypsum , shore , brine , brackish water , sink (geography) , solar pond , hydrology (agriculture) , evaporite , chemocline , salinity , environmental science , geochemistry , water column , sedimentary rock , paleontology , ecology , chemistry , geotechnical engineering , cartography , organic chemistry , geography , solar energy , biology
The meromixis is described of a small (140 × 50 m) coastal pond on the Sinai shore of the Red Sea, about 30 km south of Eilat and separated from the sea by a broad (60 m) gravel bar. Its bottom is lined with macrocrystalline gypsum and some halite and its periphery built of algal mats interbedded with gypsum. The water of the pond consists of marine brines, evaporated to various degrees of concentration. Seawater spills over the gravel bar during winter storms. This freshly supplied seawater creates a transparent “greenhouse roof” over a monimolimnetic, highly concentrated brine of low transparency. A high ridge, which almost encircles the pond, retards winds and thus prevents waves and vertical mixing. Water of the monimolimnion, 4 to 5 times more concentrated than seawater, is heated by solar radiation under the greenhouse roof up to 52C. Towards the end of summer the greenhouse roof evaporates and the exposed brine cools to normal temperatures, until winter storms repeat the cycle.