Groler+Encyclopedia

The Dead Sea—also called Buhayrat Lut (Arabic: Sea of Lot) and Yam ha-Melah (Hebrew: Salt Sea)—is a salt lake located on the border between Israel and Jordan. Its shoreline is the lowest point on the Earth's surface. The lake is 1,049 km 2 (405 mi 2 ) in area, 74 km (46 mi) long, and about 16 km (10 mi) wide. Its depth ranges from a maximum of 399 m (1,310 ft) in the north to less than 3 m (9 ft) in the south. Some of the water from its major tributary, the Jordan River, has been diverted for irrigation. This reduced the flow into the lake and lowered its level by about 18.3 m (60 ft) between the mid-1950s and the mid-1990s. In 2001 environmentalists warned that the sea would disappear entirely by 2050 if it continued to lose water at its current rate. A tongue of land now cuts off the southern quarter of the sea; this section is fed water through an artificial channel and consists almost entirely of evaporation ponds.

There have been numerous proposals to build a canal connecting the Red Sea to the Dead Sea. Such a canal, first envisioned as a source of hydroelectricity, is now viewed as a way to increase the supply of scarce drinking water for Israel, Jordan, and the Palestinian-controlled areas by desalinization through modern reverse-osmosis technology. Such a canal would, however, be very costly. It also raised numerous environmental concerns. In 2002 scientists pointed out that the replacement of salt water by fresh was dissolving buried salt deposits and creating giant sinkholes that threatened the tourist industry along the Dead Sea's shores. In September of that year, Israel and Jordan announced plans to build a 300-km (190-mi) pipeline from the Red Sea through both countries in an effort to alleviate the problem. It was the largest-ever proposed joint effort since the two nations signed a peace accord in 1994. Construction would take several years to complete and require aid from international donors, which was not immediately forthcoming. Meanwhile, deep sinkholes began to form along the shores of the Dead Sea as its level continued to decline by more than 1 m (3 ft) per year. By 2010 it averaged about 425 m (nearly 1,400 ft) below sea level, compared with its historic level of about 396 m (1,300 ft). In 2013 yet another agreement designed to save the Dead Sea was signed by Israeli, Jordanian, and Palestinian ministers. It called for the construction of a desalinization plant on the Red Sea with World Bank assistance; runoff from the plant would be piped to the Dead Sea.

The lake occupies the lowest trench in the Great Rift Valley. Flanked on east and west by parallel anticlinal ridges of sandstone and dolomite, it has no outlet, but it evaporates at the rate of approximately 1,400 mm (55 in) annually. The Dead Sea is roughly seven times as salty (nearly 30% by volume) as the ocean; its density keeps swimmers afloat. Only simple organisms can live in its saline waters. The area is hot and dry, with annual rainfall of only about 50 mm (2 in).

The special composition of Dead Sea waters and the sea's location provide unique opportunities for scientific research. In late 2010 an international team of scientists drilled beneath the Dead Sea to extract a continuous geological core that would provide a 500,000-year record of climate change and earthquake history.

Martin Ira Glassner

MLA (Modern Language Association) style: Glassner, Martin Ira. "Dead Sea." Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. Grolier Online, 2015. Web. 17 Sept. 2015.