Decipher the mysterious 'warm snow' of the Dead Sea

A long-standing mystery in the heart of the Dead Sea has been the presence of a strange kind of snow, much warmer than ordinary snow.

A group of American scientists claimed to have successfully deciphered a mystery pursued by many experts in the Dead Sea: it was a strange "snow" carpet that accumulated in the area and was getting thicker and thicker. Bottom of the sea.

Snow of the Dead Sea . is not really snow, but a huge amount of salt accumulated year after year. According to Professor Eckart Meiburg (University of California at Santa Barbara - UCSB, USA), one of the authors, they captured the phenomenon called "salt fingers" , which slowly created a salty snow carpet at the bottom. sea.

"Snow salt" on the Dead Sea usually exists in the winter.There is also this kind of snow on the bottom of the Dead Sea, but it lasts longer - (photo: SHUTTERSTOCK).

"Salt fingers" created by disturbances are almost undetectable in the upper layers of water. The warm water above the Dead Sea was agitated, so it gently dipped its slender and salty "fingers" down into the cooler water below.

However, at lower temperatures, the saturated salt concentration is reduced, which means that the amount of water in the "salt fingers" cannot suck up all the salt it once owned in the warmer area. This salt is " released" , precipitated and sunk to the bottom.

Currently the "snow" carpet is bitter and warm than the normal snow of the Dead Sea, which is about 4 meters thick and increases in thickness by about 10cm / year.

Tools embedded in the Dead Sea are covered with "salt snow" - (photo: Geological Survey of Israel).

Unlike the "salt- covered " areas near the shore, which tend to form in winter and dissolve in the summer, the mysterious "salt salt" on the bottom of the lake will last long. The team did not find any other saltwater lakes on Earth that possessed this unusual type of salt exchange.

The Dead Sea bordering the Palestinian West Coast, Israel and Jordan, is the world's most salty sea with salinity 10 times the average of other oceans on Earth. It is estimated that the Dead Sea is thousands of years old. Since 1960, the surrounding irrigation systems have diverted the freshwater flow of the Dead Sea, making the evaporation water not replenished, making it increasingly salty.