A possible brine supply from the Afar continental endorheic hyper saline lakes to the Red Sea bottom brine pools

Concentrated brine pools are known to exist at the bottom of the Red Sea at depths of 2,000–2,800 m below sea level (bsl). Concentrated continental brines are also known to exist in the nearby continental endorheic base level of the Afar Depression, which is considerably below sea level, attaining 155 m bsl at Lake Asal. According to the modelling that was carried out with the FEFLOW code, the Afar Depression brines have had sufficient time to migrate also northward along the conductive plate boundary of the Red Sea and emerge at the Red Sea submarine pools, since there is evidence of brines in Lake Asal some 6,000 years ago. It is proposed, therefore, that these dense brines descend in the continental brine lakes and subsequently move by density-driven mechanisms along the conductive plate boundary of the Red Sea.