Dead Sea Salt Formations

The Dead Sea's salinity of 33.7 percent makes it 8.6 times saltier than the ocean. Bordering Israel, the West Bank and Jordan, it is 423m below sea level, making it the lowest place on land on Earth. A tourist hotspot for millennia, more than 1m visitors a year visit on the Israeli & Palestinian side alone. The view from the shore is one thing, but from the air, the sheer strangeness of the salt formations in and around the lake become readily apparent. Photos by Baz Ratner, of Reuters, and others.

Photo: Baz Ratner, Reuters

Photo: Meredith Nutting, CC BY-SA 2.0

Photo: Iman Mosaad

Photo Karen Wilson

Photo: Baz Ratner, Reuters

Photo: Meredith Nutting, CC BY-SA 2.0

Photo: Baz Ratner, Reuters (detail)

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http://twitter.com/ChrisPerriman Chris Perriman

Double-L, Double-N in Millennia. But amazing pics! :D #corrections #typo
mahlsdorferami

“Bordering Israel and Jordan”

I don’t mean to split hairs, but most of the western shore is in fact Palestine.
- markhly
  
  Probably more like half, or just less then half.
  - strangefriend
    
    And the Dead Sea is also shrinking. Israel is claiming the new land even in Palestine.
    
    http://youtu.be/2o-oqOa6cVY
http://www.jjsaul.com Jim Saul

Fractalicious!
The variety of colors are astonishing. Imagine what strange formations we’ll find on some of the outer system moons.

Some of those look just like bacteria colonies spreading across the agar in a petri dish.
snagglepuss

Fascinating how the right half looks like the crackling finish on medieval portraits. That looks like an eye in one of those christ paintings from the period.
dahlia

i have a salt crystal-encrusted rock i pried from the dead sea and brought home as a souvenir. over the years the salt crust has gotten smaller and smoother — i imagine eventually it’ll be gone altogether and it’ll just be a rock.
Paul Wisneskey

My wife, kids and I just left the Jordanian side of the Dead Sea today: http://www.coldspaghetti.org/blog/2011/12/26/at-the-edge-of-the-dead-sea/
Sxe

What an amazing place… in the shallow water’s edge I could grab a handful of the sea bed which was just a pile of salt crystals. It’s also very difficult to tread water or float upright without the denser supersalinated water forcing one’s body up and out of the sea.
http://noctilucent-studios.blogspot.com/ Noctilucent Studios

Gorgeous pictures. Might be too much information, but this is where my soap comes from! Excellent for the skin.
CountZero

Utterly stunning photos. Really beautiful.
Mohannad Shaheen

i just wish that all people would realize why the deadsea is on this form, and why is it the lowest place on earth..

the answer is simply mentioned in Quran..

just to answer any curious
- Lorna Appleby
  
  If you wish to share and educate — shouldn’t you tell the answer? I know people learn better if they dig up information themselves, BUT this is the internet generation.. most won’t even bother to Google.
  
  If I can remember my bible study accurate (It was only 30′ish years ago!) it was where Sodom was.. and the people were immoral and without conscience so God punished them. (Turned the people to salt?)Is it similar in the Qur’an?

Dead Sea Salt Formations

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