encyclopedia: the dead sea

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The Dead Sea Arabic: al-Bahr al-Mayyit ‎‎, Hebrew: Yām Ha-Melaḥ, "Sea of Salt"), also called the Salt Sea, is a salt lake bordering Israel and the West Bank from the west, and Jordan from the east. It’s surface and shores are 422 meters (1,385 ft) below sea level,[2] the lowest elevation on the Earth's surface on dry land. The Dead Sea is 378 m (1,240 ft) deep, the deepest hypersaline lake in the world. It is also one of the world's saltiest bodies of water, with 33.7% salinity, though Lake Assal (Djibouti), Garabogazköl and some hypersaline lakes of the McMurdo Dry Valleys in Antarctica (such as Don Juan Pond) have reported higher salinities. It is 8.6 times more salty than the ocean.[4] This salinity makes it a harsh environment for animals to grow. The Dead Sea is 67 kilometres (42 mi) long and 18 kilometres (11 mi) wide at its widest point. It lies in the Jordan Rift Valley, and its main tributary is the Jordan River.

The Dead Sea has attracted visitors from around the Mediterranean basin for thousands of years. Biblically, it was a refuge for King David. It was one of the world's first health resorts (for Herod the Great), and it has been the supplier of a wide variety of products, from balms for Egyptian mummification to potash for fertilizers. People also use the salt and the minerals from the Dead Sea to create cosmetics and herbal sachets. In 2009, 1.2 million foreign tourists visited the Dead sea on the Israeli side.

The sea has a density of 1.24 kg/L, making the ability to swim a difficult task.

Geography

Satellite photograph showing the location of the Dead Sea

The Dead Sea is an endorheic lake located in the Jordan Rift Valley, a geographic feature formed by the Dead Sea Transform (DST). This left lateral-moving transform fault lies along the tectonic plate boundary between the African Plate and the Arabian Plate. It runs between the East Anatolian Fault zone in Turkey and the northern end of the Red Sea Rift offshore of the southern tip of Sinai.

The Jordan River is the only major water source flowing into the Dead Sea, although there are small perennial springs under and around the Dead Sea, creating pools and quicksand pits along the edges, there are no outlet streams.

Rainfall is scarcely 100 mm (3.9 in) per year in the northern part of the Dead Sea and barely 50 mm (2.0 in) in the southern part. The Dead Sea zone's aridity is due to the rain shadow effect of the Judean Hills. The highlands east of the Dead Sea receive more rainfall than the Dead Sea itself.

To the west of the Dead Sea, the Judean Hills rise less steeply and are much lower than the mountains to the east. Along the southwestern side of the lake is a 210 m (690 ft) tall halite formation called "Mount Sodom".

Climate

The Dead Sea's climate offers year-round sunny skies and dry air. It has less than 100 millimeters (3.94 in) of annual rainfall, and a summer average temperature between 32 and 39 °C (90 and 102 °F). Winter average temperatures range between 20 and 23 °C (68 and 73 °F). The region has weakened ultraviolet radiation, particularly the UVB (erythrogenic rays), and an atmosphere characterized by a high oxygen content due to the high barometric pressure.^[7] The sea affects temperatures nearby because of the moderating effect of the water has on the climate. During the winter, sea temperatures tend to be higher than land temperatures, and vice versa during the summer months. This is the result of the water's mass and specific heat capacity.