The Lakes and Seas of our Planet

The Dead Sea is the lowest body of water on the earth's surface and has the lowest elevation. The lake spanned around 50 miles before the water level began to drop. This drop in level changed the appearance of the dead sea. About 2.5 million years ago, thick sediments were deposited in the lake. Since the water did not replenish as quickly as it evaporated throughout the past 10,00 years, it slowly shrank to its current form. A consequence of the decrease in the water level has been the emergence of sinkholes. The Dead Sea is extremely saline, which created two different masses of water within the lake for three centuries, that lasted until the 1970s. Because of the salinity in the water, the lake can only be a form of habitat to bacteria. Other species carried into the sea by the Jordan river are quick to die.