The Dead Sea
Local Map
N
Lowest Salinity
Highest Salinity
The map above shows the Dead Sea at a local scale. As seen above, north of the Dead Sea is the
Jordan River. The Dead Sea, which borders the land of Israel, is known to be the deepest, most hypersaline lake in the world. The location of the Dead Sea, at 31.5 North of the equator (Subtropic Zone) and
35.5 East of the Prime Meridian, is characterized by hot and dry weather.
Due to the hot weather, evaporation of the bodies of water at this latitude occurs at a very fast rate.
The Jordan River consists of three separate rivers as its inflow source (there are smaller streams not
mentioned): the Dan River, the Baniyas River, and the Hasbani River. As the three inflow sources of the
Jordan River are considered freshwater, it was inferred from my reading that the Jordan River was a
freshwater source of water.
Taking into consideration the main inflow source of the Dead Sea as the freshwater Jordan River
and high rate of evaporation, we learn that the Dead Sea takes up much of the water from the lake as
water vapor, leaving behind the mineral deposits collected through the path along the riverbed. The result
is the extremely high levels of minerals left behind in the lake, creating a body of water with a salinity of
33-34%.
The Jordan River, although freshwater, picks up and collects minerals and salts along the riverbed
it lies on. The yellow on the map indicates the above path. The pinkish peach, third down on the chart,
indicates the area in which the river meets the Dead Sea (the estuary)—this area is characterized as the
least saline water in the Dead Sea.
Sources:
http://www.britannica.com/place/Jordan-River
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Sea
http://www.extremescience.com/dead-sea.htm
The Dead Sea
Regional Map
N
Lowest Salinity
highest level of salinity on local map
Highest Salinity
The map shown above shows the levels of salinity for the same area (the Dead Sea) at a different scale than
at the local map scale. The regional scale map shown above is congruent to the small scale map found in the
textbook reading: earthonlinemedia: map scale.
As seen above in the local scale, the Dead Sea is much more saline than the freshwater Jordan; all we see of
the Dead Sea in the local map is the north end of the Dead Sea, the area in which the freshwater river meets the
hyper-saline body of water. The map shown above, which showcases the Dead Sea at a Regional Scale pulls out just
enough to show the Dead Sea at a scale where each unit (inch on actual map, but shrunk to fit on page) represents 10
miles.
In this map, the Dead Sea shows the extremely high levels of salinity at 33-34% centered at the middle of
the sea. As http://www.extremescience.com/dead-sea.htm states, the surface of the Dead Sea is the least saline, as
the Jordan River feeds freshwater into it. Compiling my findings, I’ve determined that the salinity of the sea is the
lowest where the waters are shallow (typically near the edges of the sea—although I would have thought the shallow
water would allow evaporation to occur more quickly).
The yellow strip indicated in the above map represents the Jordan River (as it is pulled out and looked at
from a farther viewpoint, I left out the green strip in the center (look to local map for reference) to indicate simply
that the river consists of freshwater.) The Dead Sea is colored in to represent lower levels of salt at the edges of the
sea, gradually becoming more and more saline towards the center—the density of the salt pulling the
aforementioned water in the sea with the highest salinity levels to the deep, bottom (the pressure may allow the
difference in salinity between depths). You can also see that when the levels of salinity shown in the local map,
which showed a great range in the levels of salinity, is compared to the same area at a regional scale, the highest
level of salinity in said local map is only the middle level of salinity at the regional.
As mentioned above in the description of the local map, the Dead Sea is a basin of water located near a
very temperate heat source. Because the Dead Sea does not empty out into the ocean, evaporation that occurs here is
results in extreme levels of salinity from the minerals left behind in the evaporation process.
Sources:
http://www.extremescience.com/dead-sea.htm
http://www.britannica.com/place/Jordan-River
The Dead Sea
Global Map
Lowest Salinity
N
Highest Salinity
North Atlantic Ocean
Black- 16
Black Sea
Mediterranean- 37
Tyrrhenian Sea
Aegean Sea
Caspian
Sea
Dead Sea
Mediterranean Sea
South China Sea
Bay of
Bengal
Arabian Sea
The map above shows the Dead Sea at the global scale. For this map, the area was pulled out to view the
Dead Sea and other surrounding bodies of water at a scale where each unit represents 1,000 miles.
Salinity, as defined by the National Institute of Oceanography, is the “ratio of weight of dissolved salts to
total weight; the ratio is usually expressed as parts per thousand (ppt.).” The average salinity of the ocean, NIO
continues, is estimated to be around 37.4 ppt.; in other words, for every one kilogram of water, it is estimated that an
average of 37.4 grams of salt can be found dissolved within.
For this last part of the assignment, I researched the ppt. of all other surrounding bodies of water. From the
bodies of water visible on the map at this scale, the Caspian Sea stands at top with the lowest levels of salinity at
only 13 ppt. Next up, very close both in range (distance) and in level of salinity comes the Black Sea at 18 ppt.,
which is the result of the inflow of many freshwater streams and rivers. The body of water third lowest in salinity is
the Bay of Bengal, which at 31 ppt. shows the lowest level of salinity directly in contact with other bodies of water.
Next up is the South China Sea, which also is very close in distance and ppt. at 34 ppt. Right after the South China
Sea, comes the body of water directly in contact with both the Bay of Bengal and the South China Sea, the Arabian
Sea (ranges from 35-36 ppt.)
The North Atlantic Ocean then shows a very close ppt. to the average ocean ppt. at 37 ppt. More curiously,
the bodies of water: the Tyrrhenian Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, the Ionian Sea and the Aegean Sea, which are all
enclosed by land, are at the same level of salinity as the North Atlantic Ocean.
Lastly, the body of water visible on this map with the highest level of salinity is the Dead Sea which stands
at 300-400 ppt. (ranges based on the level of inflow and the rate of evaporation, although recent studies show the
Dead Sea to be more and more saline), roughly around 10 times more saline than the average ocean.
Sources:
www.somers.k12.ct.us/~klegg/documents/DensitySalinityTemperature.ppt
https://courses.seas.harvard.edu/.../eli/...presentations/Elie-Galam-2.ppt
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Dead_Sea
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0031018297000217
http://www.britannica.com/science/salinity
http://www.eoearth.org/view/article/149849/
http://ponce.sdsu.edu/lakesalinityworld.html
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Arabian_Sea
http://www.nio.org/index/option/com_nomenu/task/show/tid/2/id/140
Screencast:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v
=5-3USdCtl40&feature=youtu.be