There’s billions of life forms on there. Say a shrimp dies and isn’t eaten up or anything by scavengers, could it pickle over time? The way we pickle meats in a salt brine? The ocean is a salt brine in itself.

  • Havatra@lemmy.zip
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    2 days ago

    Depends on the conditions, I’d say. If you have an area that has low oxygen and high saline concentration, one could potentially preserve large parts of the carcass. A big challenge though is the substances brought by the carcass itself, like enzymes and bacteria that are not directly exposed to the oxygen-deficient saline-abundant water, which can thrive and remain active for a long period of time. However, if this carcass sinks to incredible depths, where the pressure is really high, temperature is a constant 4 degrees, very low concentration of scavengers or thriving organisms, and potentially sinks a bit into the sediment for a long time, you’ll essentially get pickle juice fossil fuel.