Orca Basin in GOM Thread: Message

Orca Basin

The Orca Basin is a mid-slope, silled, mini-basin in the northern Gulf of Mexico some 300 km southwest of the Mississippi River mouth on the Louisiana continental slope. It is unique amongst the mini-basins in this area, in containing a large brine pool of anoxic salt brine. The lake is approximately 123 km2 (47 sq mi) in area and up to 220 m (720 ft) deep under 2,400 m (7,900 ft) depth of Gulf water and is derived from dissolution of underlying Jurassic age Louann Salt. With a volume of 13.3 km3 (3.2 cu mi) the pool results from the dissolution of about 3.62 billion tonnes of the Louann Salt bed into seawater. The basin owes its shape to ongoing salt tectonics and is surrounded by salt diapirs

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