Today I Learned: A Collection of Facts We Didn’t Know We Needed to Know

Antarctica usually brings to mind giant glaciers and snow. It’s so cold there that many people assume there are no bodies of water. Everything must be frozen, right? Well, there’s an extremely salty, extremely deep lake that has such high salinity that it never, ever freezes. Even in the midst of the coldest winters in Antarctica, it remains liquid.

The lake is creatively named Deep Lake. It’s located in the Vestfold Hills area of Antarctica and is about 118 feet deep. Temperatures in Deep Lake can drop as low as -20 °C (-4°F), but it never freezes because of the high salinity. In addition, almost no lifeforms can survive in the lake due to the high salinity.