The Dead Sea is 'dying'

www.breitbart.com ^ | April 17, 2006 | AFP

[Bubba_Leroy]

The bare, sun-baked landscape around the Dead Sea -- the lowest point on earth which is bordered by Israel, Jordan and the West Bank -- has since Biblical times been fed by the Jordan river's fresh water.

I can't for the life of me figure out what this sentence is supposed to mean. Don't wire services have editors anymore?

If they are trying to say that the Dead Sea is the lowest point on Earth, then they are wrong. I am pretty sure that distinction belongs to the Marianas Trench. The bottom of the dead sea does not even make the top ten list.

If they are saying that it is the lowest point that borders Israel, Jordan and the West Bank, well yeah, but it is a relatively short border.

[Doogle]

????...I'm so old I remember when the dead sea was just sick



Doogle

[xcamel]

In other news, California is getting it's "500 year recharge" of rainfall. The Mideast might be next if climate trends continue.

[SampleMan]

But since the victory of Islamist militant movement Hamas in January's Palestinian elections, Israel has cut virtually all contacts with the Palestinian Authority, further complicating the delicate situation.

So once again it is Israel's fault, not the Palestinians for electing Hamas.?

[Blzbba]

[HUGE Yawn]

Who cares?

[ItsTheMediaStupid]

I think they are saying that the dead sea has been fed by the Jordan River since biblical times.

Pretty sure it has been fed a lot longer than that.

[sofaman]

The Dead Sea is below sea level. The trenches in the "Top 10" are submarine trenches.

[A Balrog of Morgoth]

The Dead Sea is dying.


It's already Dead, right, so WGAS?

[mikrofon]

It's DEAD, Jim.

[Constitution Day]

This must be a press release from the Department of Redundancy Department.

[fanfan]

have evaporated through industrial use.

Interesting choice of words.

[Crucis Country]

Isn't this an oxymoron?

[Dog Gone]

Once again, this story portrays any change to the earth's surface as catastrophic, ignoring the fact that geologic and geographic changes are constantly occuring and always have been.

The fragile coral reefs that existed in the Permian Basin of West Texas are gone! Completely dead and now buried by about 8,000 feet of solid rock and topsoil!!

It's an ecological disaster!

And they're also a nice trap for hydrocarbons which is why we're drilling holes into them today.

[fanfan]

Isn't this an oxymoron?

The title of this thread appears to be.

[Kaylee Frye]

The bare, sun-baked landscape around the Dead Sea -- the lowest point on earth which is bordered by Israel, Jordan and the West Bank -- has since Biblical times been fed by the Jordan river's fresh water.

They are trying (and failing) to say that the Dead Sea is the lowest point of land on the Earth: http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0001763.html

[ExcursionGuy84]

I do...'cause I wanna see the water drop a few feet more.

The reason is that I'm of the belief that the remains of the biblical cities of Sodom & Gomorrah are somewhere underneath the surface of the Dead Sea.

Of course, I could be waaaaaaay wrong, like usual.

[Calvin Locke]

I vaguely recall a PBS show, showing how salt is mined from what I think was the Dead Sea.

Basically, pumping the water out on to evaporation plains.

Now that I think about it, the show "Worlds Dirtiest Jobs" showed a honey truck dumping its load on to a concrete
evaporation area, and a frontloader comes along the next day to dump the dried waste into a truck to take to the dump.

[XJarhead]

They are trying (and failing) to say that the Dead Sea is the lowest point of land on the Earth.

I thought it blindingly obvious what they meant, even though I suppose you could nitpick the word choice.

[Kaylee Frye]

I thought it blindingly obvious what they meant, even though I suppose you could nitpick the word choice.

I had to read it twice to figure it out. When I saw that others were also confused, I thought I'd clarify. I maintain that it's a badly-worded sentence.

[XJarhead]

Perhaps. But the initial poster who claimed "I can't for the life of me figure out what was meant..." really couldn't see any obvious differences between the Marianas Trench and the Dead Sea?