First discovery of a cold seep on the continental margin of the central Red Sea

A new cold brine seep system with microbial mats and metazoan assemblages was discovered by a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) on the Saudi continental margin of central Red Sea. Now named as Thuwal Seeps, it has a shallow brine pool between 840 and 850 m water depths that is formed by focused brine expulsions from two sites (Seep I: 22 degrees 17.3'N, 38 degrees 53.8'E: Seep II: 22 degrees 16.9'N, 38 degrees 53.9'E). The seep is located at the base of a steep wall rock closer to the shore (20 km) than to the axial trough (120 km). The brine pool does not exhibit a significant thermal anomaly (<0.3 degrees C) and is so far the coldest (21.7 degrees C) and least saline (74 parts per thousand) among brine pools in the Red Sea. This discovery provides the first direct evidence of a cold seep with associated biota on the continental margin of the Red Sea. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.