Posted on 10/03/2003 6:04:46 PM PDT by blam
The Dead Sea is dying as its dark salty waters retreat
(Filed: 04/10/2003)
Human exploitation is forcing the surface level down by three feet each year, reports David Blair
The jagged cliffs of the Judaean desert mountains, where John the Baptist wandered and Jewish fighters made their last stand at Masada, once sloped directly into the Dead Sea.
Today, many of those cliffs descend into ugly mudflats covering much of the basin marking the lowest point on Earth. For the Dead Sea is in retreat as human intervention forces the water level downwards by more than three feet per year.
Over the last 50 years, the Dead Sea has shrunk by a third and its surface has fallen 88ft, from 1,280ft below sea level to 1,368ft. At this rate of decline, the salt waters between Israel and Jordan will disappear completely within the next century.
Already, the Dead Sea's retreat has left hotels on the Israeli shore stranded, well away from the famed waters. Regular visitors are shocked by the speed of the change.
Gedrat Klaus, 55, has been visiting the Ein Gedi spa since 1991. "Every year the water level drops and you can see the extent of it," he said.
"When we first came, the water was up to here, right beside the hotel." Today, the spa finds itself becalmed almost one mile from the inland sea.
Guests hoping to float on the salty waters must either stumble across the mudflats - in temperatures approaching 40C (104F) - or travel to the beach on a rickety trolley pulled by a yellow tractor.
Ein Gedi is within sight of the arid crags of Masada, where 1,000 Jewish Zealots and their families held out against the Romans before choosing suicide over surrender in AD70.
The Dead Sea would once have lapped close to Masada. Today, a dusty plain has interposed itself between the mountain and the shore. The same is true of Qumran, on the water's north-western edge, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in a cave in 1947.
Scientists have no doubt that human intervention has caused the retreat. The Dead Sea is fed by the river Jordan, 90 per cent of whose waters are diverted further upstream by Israel and Jordan.
Both countries also drain parts of the southern Dead Sea to extract minerals from its unique waters. "The demise of the Dead Sea is not a natural phenomenon. The destruction is totally man-made," said Gidon Bromberg, director of Friends of the Earth's Middle East office in Israel.
"The crisis is today. We can't wait for 10 years. We're calling on the countries involved to take action today."
Mr Bromberg said Israel and Jordan could take immediate steps to limit the decline. Much of the Jordan's waters could be reallocated to feed the Dead Sea instead of agricultural land further upstream. Both countries could stop pumping raw sewage into the mineral rich waters.
Yet the Jordan is a crucial strategic resource. Neither Israel nor Jordan is willing to relax its control over the river's flow.
Moreover, the stigma attached to Arab co-operation with Israel means no overall plan exists for the Dead Sea's conservation.
"Everyone is grabbing as much as they can, be it water or hotel development or industrial extraction," said Mr Bromberg. "We say to the countries involved, 'sit around the table and plan its future together'."
If the Dead Sea's decline is allowed to continue, the damage to the area's ecosystem will be irreparable. An intricate system of freshwater springs in the surrounding desert depends on the Dead Sea. As its waters disappear, so do these springs.
Their demise would make the Judaean desert harsher still and threaten the wildlife in a cluster of Israeli nature reserves along the sea's western edge. "There isn't a child in the world who hasn't heard of the Dead Sea," said Mr Bromberg. "It is a truly unique place".
Tourists, mainly. Bobbing on the surface.
I don't know. I do know that a water sprinkling was just installed at the Salton Sea to keep the wind from blowing up toxic(?) dust from the old lake bed.
As early as 1936, it was proven that the Dead Sea is not completely abiotic i. e. "dead" . (Elazari,Volcani -1936). Since then, a number of halophitic and halotolerant microorganisms have been isolated from the Dead Sea. Two communities have been observed which are Dunaiiella parva, an alga, and; Sulfur isotope gave evidence (Gavrieli and Bein,1993) indicating sulfate reduction by bacteria.
Just caught the headline but, they have just spent a lot of money there upgrading the site.
Thanks, didn't know that. It wasn't affected in the last Ice Age? Weren't there some glaciers in that area?
"Mono Lake is most unique. For starters, it's old--at least 700,000 years old and one of the oldest continuously existing lakes on the continent. Fed by huge glaciers back during the last Ice Age, Mono Lake was 60 times larger than the 66 square miles it covers today."
Any verification on this?"
This articles states that the mineral wealth of the Dead Sea is four times the wealth of the US.(?)
"The mineral wealth of the Dead Sea (four times the wealth of the United States at the height of her prosperity) and the oil wealth underneath these mentioned areas make it well worth to invest more into research and development. The successful harvesting of our natural wealth would render us independent from foreign aid and consequently free us from much of American and European pressure. It would make Israel one of the wealthiest nations of the world."
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