- Don Juan Pond, the hypersaline lake in western Antarctica which has even greater salinity than the Dead Sea
- With a salinity of over 40%, Don Juan Pond is the saltiest body of water in the world
- It is named after the two pilots who first investigated the pond in 1961, Lt Don Roe and Lt John Hickey
- It is a small lake, only 100m by 300m, and on average 0.1m deep, but it is so salty that even in the Antarctic, where the temperature at the pond regularly drops to as low as -30 degrees Celsius, it never freezes
- It is 18 times saltier than sea water, compared to the Dead Sea which is only 8 times saltier than sea water
- At its saltiest, Don Juan Pond contains 671 parts per thousand salt, compared to 35 and 300 for the ocean and the Dead Sea respectively
- A beautiful salty pool in Antarctica's Dry Valleys is teaching scientists about the potential for life in brine pools on ancient Mars
- The study also reveals a previously unreported mechanism for producing an important greenhouse gas - nitrous oxide - in Antarctic habitats
- Research at Antarctica's 'Mars on Earth' reveals non-organic mechanism for production of important greenhouse gas
- Possibly even more important, the discovery could help space scientists understand the meaning of similar brine pools in a place whose ecosystem most closely resembles that of Don Juan Pond
