Video: Bizarre salt deposits in the Dead Sea
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
Biblical legend says that on the territory of modern Dead sea once the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were located, burned by God because the locals were evil and sinful. Only Lot (Abraham's nephew) and his daughters managed to survive, who fled without looking back from the burning city, but his wife turned around, breaking the ban, for which she was turned into salt pillar … Despite the fact that archaeologists have not been able to find traces of the legendary cities, salt deposits of bizarre forms still amaze travelers who come to the shores of the saltiest lake in the world.
The chemical composition of the water in the Dead Sea is unique: its density is so high that it is simply impossible to drown, and because of the increased salinity (8, 6 times stronger than in the ocean), the ancient Greek scientist Pausanias called this lake "dead", indicating that there can be no living organisms in these waters. The water contains 35 types of minerals, including magnesium, calcium, potassium, bromine, sulfur and iodine. This leads to the formation of crystalline deposits of intricate shapes.
The most impressive are the "salt mushrooms" - which "grow" in shallow ponds near the beach. Their “caps-hoods” can be up to half a meter in diameter. Such "mushrooms" are formed at low air temperatures, when, after a night of intense evaporation, rectangular crystals of table salt begin to form on the surface of the water. Other salt formations may resemble the white flowers of anemones or coral reefs, snow clouds that have sunk to the bottom of the sea, or bubbles of foaming waves frozen off the coast.
In recent decades, the area of the Dead Sea has been rapidly shrinking as a large amount of fresh water is taken from the rivers that feed the lake. This water is essential for use in agriculture and mining. In 2009, a project was proposed for the conservation of the Dead Sea, which involves supplying Jordan with desalinated water from the Red Sea. The approximate timeframe for its implementation is 2017, this will save the resources of the Dead Sea.
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