The Jacuzzi Of Despair Poem by Daya Nandan

33000 feet at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico,
Lies a strange circular pocket of super-salty water down below,
30.5 meters (100 feet) in circumference and 3.7 meters (12 feet) deep,
Filled with remains well preserved marine life for the jacuzzi to keep,

Thought to be four to five times saltier than the surrounding ocean,
It easily and certainly kills most sea creatures without emotion,
It is so dense that it sits isolated on the ocean floor,
Where a toxic concoction of chemicals brings life in it to death's door,

Methane gas and hydrogen sulfide fills up the Jacuzzi of Despair,
Far too toxic and extreme of an environment for most life to bare,
It was formed as normal seawater seeped into cracks in the seabed,
Mixed with the region's subsurface salt formations to create this pool of the dead,

It all started during the Jurassic period, between 200 and 145.5 million years ago,
When a shallow sea existed on the site of the current Gulf of Mexico.
As plate tectonics continued its inevitable march to the future,
This sea was severed from the rest of the ocean which was much cooler,

In an incredibly warm world, this isolated sea began to eventually evaporate,
which ultimately left behind a huge mass of salt to slowly accumulate,
Eventually, the evaporated inland sea was flooded by the ocean as it was once again,
Reconnection to the vast oceans for the site was a new gift to gain,

But by this point, vast layers of salt several kilometres thick had already been covered,
By insoluble sediment that only recently through research mankind has discovered,
The weight of seawater squashed this salt down, some of it was forced back up
Onto the seafloor via a process called salt tectonics to begin a new part of the startup,

This salt then interacted with the seawater, dissolved, and formed clouds of brine
That settled on the seafloor creating this Jacuzzi of Despair so scary yet fine,
Giant mussels with gills impregnated with symbiotic bacteria are of the few able to survive,
by feeding off the noxious gases there in order to keep themselves alive,

Some tube worms and shrimp can be seen living there too,
Along with some extremophile microorganisms surviving a saltiness so true,
But if you were to dive in to test the extreme conditions your body can bare,
You would quickly turn into a well preserved corpse within the Jacuzzi of Despair.