Why the Dead Sea Is Getting Saltier – and Shallower
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| Dead Sea Salt Sculptures by Anat Eshed Goldberg |
The lake’s water, which is increasingly extracted for use in cosmetic and 'therapeutic' minerals, simply isn’t being replaced.
The world’s most historic salt lake has been shrinking by about three feet every year, according to environmentalist group EcoPeace Middle East. Excessive tourism is taking its toll on the Dead Sea, the group warns, and inflow has slowed to a trickle. The lake’s water, which is increasingly extracted for use in cosmetic and "therapeutic" products, simply isn’t being replaced.
Bordered by Jordan to the east and by Israel and Palestine to the west, the Dead Sea is a landlocked lake rather than a true sea, and is recognized as one of the saltiest bodies of water on Earth.
Its name is well earned — no fish, birds or plants can survive in its high-saline environment. Along the shores, salt buildup collects in rocky ridges, peaks and towers, and visitors find that the Dead Sea's extra-salty water is so buoyant that they can practically sit on its surface.
But what is it that makes the Dead Sea so excessively salty — nearly 10 times saltier than normal seawater?
Salt of the Earth
"Some of us bathed for more than an hour, and then came out coated with salt till we shone like icicles," Twain wrote.
Most ocean water is typically about 3.5 percent dissolved salts, according to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). This salt originates in rocks on land; acids in rainwater dissolve the rocks and create ions — charged atomic particles — that runoff carries into the ocean. The most common of these ions are sodium and chloride, which accumulate in the ocean as salt.
If all of the salt in the ocean were removed and spread over all of the dry land on Earth, the layer would reach a height of 500 feet (150 meters), according to NOAA.
But all of that salt is still just a drop in the bucket compared to the quantities in the Dead Sea's waters.
How low can you go?
One source of freshwater feeds the Dead Sea: the Jordan River. But without any outlets, when freshwater reaches the sea, it has nowhere else to go. In the arid low-lying desert, the water that collects in the Dead Sea evaporates more quickly than water in the open ocean, leaving vast quantities of salt behind, the MDSRC explains.
Left for dead
In recent years, human activity has siphoned still more precious water from the Dead Sea by diverting the Jordan River for agricultural use, thus shrinking the sea's boundaries and making the remaining water even saltier.
In fact, the Dead Sea is disappearing at an alarming rate, receding by about 3 feet (1 m) each year, according to a study published in 2010 in the journal Environmental Economics. The study authors further noted that the Dead Sea has retreated by about 100 feet (30 m) since the start of the 20th century.
And research suggests that even without human intervention, the Dead Sea could be in trouble. In 2010 and 2011, scientists drilled below the Dead Sea to look for clues about its geologic past. They found that about 120,000 years ago, during a warm period that preceded the last ice age, the Dead Sea dried up completely, leaving all of its salt behind.
But though its future may be uncertain, the body of water long known for being a "dead zone" still has a few surprises to offer scientists. In a 2011 expedition, researchers donned specialized diving equipment and descended to previously unreachable depths in the salty water, finding freshwater springs that were surrounded by colonies of microbes.
It looks like the Dead Sea might still have some life in it after all.
The study was published on Live Science.