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dest known name 18 is the sea of salt hebrew ים המלח romanized yām hammelaḥ other hebrew names for the lake also mentioned in the bible are the sea of arabah hebrew ים הערבה romanized yām ha ărāvâ and the eastern sea hebrew היםהקדמוני romanized hayām haqadmōnî in the talmud it is called sea of salt 19 or sea of sodom 20 the arabic name is al bahr al mayyit البحر الميت or usually without the article al 21 it is also known in arabic as the sea of lot arabic بحر لوط romanized baḥr lūṭ 22 or بُحَيْرَة buhayrat بَحْرَة bahret or بِرْكَة لوط birket lūṭ 23 from the nephew of abraham whose wife was said to have turned into a pillar of salt during the destruction of sodom and gomorrah 16 less often it has been known in arabic as the sea of zoara بَحْر صُوغَر from a formerly important city along its shores because of the large volume of ancient trade in the lake s naturally occurring free floating bitumen its usual names in ancient greek and roman geography were some form of asphalt lake ancient greek ἀσφαλτίτης romanized asphaltítēs or no ἀσφαλτίτις λίμνη romanized asphaltítis límnē latin lacus asphaltites or asphalt sea ἀσφαλτίτης θάλασσα asphaltítēs thálassa it was also known as the dead sea ancient greek νεκρά θάλασσα romanized nekrá thálassa latin mare mortuum 18 citation needed another ancient name is the jewish sea latin iudaicum mare a term used by the second century roman historian tacitus 18 geography satellite photograph showing the location of the dead sea east of the mediterranean sea the dead sea is a salt lake bordered by jordan to the east and palestine s israeli occupied west bank and israel to the west 6 7 it is an endorheic lake meaning there are no outlet streams the dead sea lies 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 water feeds into the dead sea from various sources many small or intermittent including jordan river international border from the north 6 arava stream wadi arava international border from the south wadi mujib arnon stream jordan karak governorate 24 wadi darga 24 wadi darajeh nahal darga or nahal dragot west bank wadi al hasa brook of zered jordan boundary between karak governorate and tafilah governorate nahal arugot wadi areijeh or wadi argot mouth at ein gedi israel 24 wadi wala jordan side 24 wadi zarqa ma in jordan side 24 nahal tur west bank nahal og west bank groundwater seepage 24 direct rainfall wadi is the arabic term for a river valley with a small or intermittent stream nahal is the equivalent in hebrew the two terms are often used interchangeably in english names for the same body of water the water of wadi hassa is now completely consumed in jordan 24 the jordan river which passes through the sea of galilee has been substantially diverted it currently only contributes about one sixth of the inflow to the dead sea less than direct rainfall 24 there are also small perennial springs under and around the dead sea forming pools and quicksand pits along the edges 25 the wadi mujib valley 420 m below the sea level in the southern part of the jordan valley is a biosphere reserve with an area of 212 km 2 82 sq mi 26 rainfall is scarcely 100 mm 4 in per year in the northern part of the dead sea and barely 50 mm 2 in in the southern part 27 the dead sea zone s aridity is due to the rainshadow effect of the judaean mountains the highlands east of the dead sea receive more rainfall than the dead sea itself to the west of the dead sea the judaean mountains rise less steeply and are much lower than the mountains to the east along the southwestern side of the lake is a 210 m 700 ft tall halite mineral formation called mount sodom geology this section needs more citations please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources unsourced material may be challenged and removed find sources dead sea geology news newspapers books scholar jstor july 2020 learn how and when to remove this message the jordanian shore of the dead sea showing salt deposits left behind by falling water levels formation theories there are two contending hypotheses about the origin of the low elevation of the dead sea the older hypothesis is that the dead sea lies in a true rift zone an extension of the red sea rift or even of the great rift valley of eastern africa a more recent hypothesis is that the dead sea basin is a consequence of a step over discontinuity along the dead sea transform creating an extension of the crust with consequent subsidence 28 sedom lagoon during the late pliocene early pleistocene what is now the valley of the jordan river dead sea and the northern wadi arabah was repeatedly inundated by waters from the mediterranean sea 29 the waters formed in a narrow crooked bay that is called by geologists the sedom lagoon which was connected to the sea through what is now the jezreel valley 30 the floods of the valley came and went depending on long scale changes in the tectonic and climatic conditions 29 the sedom lagoon extended at its maximum from the sea of galilee in the north to somewhere around 50 km 30 mi south of the current southern end of the dead sea and the subsequent lakes never surpassed this expanse the hula depression was never part of any of these water bodies due to its higher elevation and the high threshold of the korazim block separating it from the sea of galilee basin 31 salt deposits the sedom lagoon deposited evaporites mainly consisting of rock salt which eventually reached a thickness of 2 3 km 1 43 mi on the old basin floor in the area of today s mount sedom 32 lake formation nasa photo showing depth of the dead sea basin slightly below center the mediterranean sea is on the right with the suez canal visible connecting it to the red sea on left slightly above center according to kafri during the late neogene i e in the pliocene ended c 2 5 million years ago the eustatic sea level was at 50 100 metres above the current sea level thus flooding the northern valleys connecting the mediterranean sea with the jordan rift valley which led to the creation of a crooked shaped lagoon this high eustatic sea level situation subsequently came to an end and the ocean could no longer flood the area thus the long lagoon became a landlocked lake which due to the high evaporation rate retreated toward the lower southern part of the rift valley 31 however mordechai stein considers the formation process as not yet clarified speaking of a late pliocene early pleistocene process in which tectonics might also have played a part in blocking water ingression from the mediterranean to its former bay or lagoon 29 the first prehistoric lake to follow the sedom lagoon is named lake amora which possibly appeared in the early pleistocene its sediments developed into the amora samra formation dated to over 200 80 kyr bp followed by lake lisan c 70 14 kyr and finally by the dead sea 29 31 33 lake salinity the water levels and salinity of the successive lakes amora lisan dead sea have either risen or fallen as an effect of the tectonic dropping of the valley bottom and due to climate variation as the climate became more arid lake lisan finally shrank and became saltier leaving the dead sea as its last remainder 29 31 from 70 000 to 12 000 years ago lake lisan s level was 100 to 250 m 330 to 820 ft higher than its current level possibly due to lower evaporation than in the present 34 35 its level fluctuated dramatically rising to its highest level around 26 000 years ago indicating a very wet climate in west asia 36 volume and issue needed around 10 000 years ago the lake s level dropped dramatically probably even lower than today during the last several thousand years the lake has fluctuated approximately 400 m 1 300 ft with some significant drops and rises current theories as to the cause of this dramatic drop in levels rule out volcanic activity therefore it may have been a seismic event salt mounts formation in prehistoric times great amounts of sediment collected on the floor of lake amora 31 33 the sediment was heavier than the salt deposits and squeezed the salt deposits upwards into what are now the lisan peninsula and mount sodom on the southwest side of the lake geologists explain the effect in terms of a bucket of mud into which a large flat stone is placed forcing the mud to creep up the sides of the bucket when the floor of the dead sea dropped further due to tectonic forces the salt mounts of lisan and mount sodom stayed in place as high cliffs see salt dome climate the dead sea has a hot desert climate köppen climate classification bwh with year round sunny skies and dry air it has less than 50 millimetres 2 in mean 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 weaker ultraviolet radiation particularly the uvb erythrogenic rays given the higher atmospheric pressure the air has a slightly higher oxygen content 3 3 in summer to 4 8 in winter as compared to oxygen concentration at sea level 37 38 barometric pressures at the dead sea were measured between 1061 and 1065 hpa and clinically compared with health effects at higher altitude 39 this barometric measure is about 5 higher than sea level standard atmospheric pressure of 1013 25 hpa which is the global ocean mean or atm the dead sea affects temperatures nearby because of the moderating effect a large body of water has on 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 on average there are 192 days above 30 c 86 f annually 40 climate data for dead sea sedom 390 m below sea level month jan feb mar apr may jun jul aug sep oct nov dec year record high c f 26 4 79 5 30 4 86 7 33 8 92 8 42 5 108 5 45 0 113 0 46 4 115 5 47 0 116 6 44 5 112 1 43 6 110 5 40 0 104 0 35 0 95 0 28 5 83 3 47 0 116 6 mean daily maximum c f 20 5 68 9 21 7 71 1 24 8 76 6 29 9 85 8 34 1 93 4 37 6 99 7 39 7 103 5 39 0 102 2 36 5 97 7 32 4 90 3 26 9 80 4 21 7 71 1 30 4 86 7 daily mean c f 16 6 61 9 17 7 63 9 20 8 69 4 25 4 77 7 29 4 84 9 32 6 90 7 34 7 94 5 34 5 94 1 32 4 90 3 28 6 83 5 23 1 73 6 17 9 64 2 26 1 79 0 mean daily minimum c f 12 7 54 9 13 7 56 7 16 7 62 1 20 9 69 6 24 7 76 5 27 6 81 7 29 6 85 3 29 9 85 8 28 3 82 9 24 7 76 5 19 3 66 7 14 1 57 4 21 9 71 4 record low c f 5 4 41 7 6 0 42 8 8 0 46 4 11 5 52 7 19 0 66 2 23 0 73 4 26 0 78 8 26 8 80 2 24 2 75 6 17 0 62 6 9 8 49 6 6 0 42 8 5 4 41 7 average precipitation mm inches 7 8 0 31 9 0 0 35 7 6 0 30 4 3 0 17 0 2 0 01 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 0 05 3 5 0 14 8 3 0 33 41 9 1 65 average precipitation days 3 3 3 5 2 5 1 3 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 1 6 2 8 15 6 average relative humidity 41 38 33 27 24 23 24 27 31 33 36 41 32 source israel meteorological service 41 chemistry halite deposits and teepee structure along the western dead sea coast with 34 2 salinity in 2011 it is one of the world s saltiest bodies of water though lake vanda in antarctica 35 lake assal in djibouti 34 8 lagoon garabogazköl in the caspian sea up to 35 and some hypersaline ponds and lakes of the mcmurdo dry valleys in antarctica such as don juan pond 44 have reported higher salinities in the 19th century and the early 20th century the surface layers of the dead sea were less salty than today which resulted in an average density in the range of 1 15 1 17 g cm 3 instead of the present value of around 1 25 g cm 3 a sample tested by bernays in the 19th century had a salinity of 19 by the year 1926 the salinity had increased 42 43 although it was also suspected that the salinity varies seasonally and depends on the distance from the mouth of the jordan until the winter of 1978 79 when a major mixing event took place 44 the dead sea was composed of two stratified layers of water that differed in temperature density age and salinity the topmost 35 meters 115 ft or so of the dead sea had an average salinity of about 30 and a temperature that swung between 19 and 37 c 66 and 99 f underneath a zone of transition the lowest level of the dead sea had waters of a consistent 22 c 72 f temperature salinity of over 34 and complete saturation of sodium chloride nacl 45 since the water near the bottom is saturated with nacl that salt precipitates out of solution onto the sea floor beginning in the 1960s water inflow to the dead sea from the jordan river was reduced as a result of large scale irrigation and generally low rainfall by 1975 the upper water layer was saltier than the lower layer nevertheless the upper layer remained suspended above the lower layer because its waters were warmer and thus less dense when the upper layer cooled so its density was greater than the lower layer the waters mixed 1978 79 for the first time in centuries citation needed the lake was a homogeneous body of water since then stratification has begun to redevelop 44 pebbles cemented with halite on the western shore of the dead sea near ein gedi the mineral content of the dead sea is very different from that of ocean water the exact composition of the dead sea water varies mainly with season depth and temperature in the early 1980s the concentration of ionic species in g kg of dead sea surface water was cl 181 4 br 4 2 so 4 2 0 4 hco 3 0 2 ca 2 14 1 na 32 5 k 6 2 and mg 2 35 2 the total salinity was 276 g kg 46 these results show that the composition of the salt as anhydrous chlorides on a weight percentage basis was calcium chloride cacl 2 14 4 potassium chloride kcl 4 4 magnesium chloride mgcl 2 50 8 and sodium chloride nacl 30 4 in comparison the salt in the water of most oceans and seas is approximately 85 sodium chloride the concentration of sulfate ions so 4 2 is very low and the concentration of bromide ions br is the highest of all waters on earth beach pebbles made of halite western coast the salt concentration of the dead sea fluctuates around 31 5 this is unusually high and results in a nominal density of 1 24 kg l anyone can easily float in the dead sea because of natural buoyancy in this respect the dead sea is similar to the great salt lake in utah in the united states an unusual feature of the dead sea is its discharge of asphalt from deep seeps the dead sea constantly spits up small pebbles and blocks of the black substance 47 asphalt coated figurines and bitumen coated neolithic skulls from archaeological sites have been found egyptian mummification processes used asphalt imported from the dead sea region 48 49 putative therapies the dead sea area has become a location for health research and potential treatment for several reasons the mineral content of the water the low content of poll...