Collapse and subsidence associated with salt karstification along the Dead Sea

Abstract

Two types of sinkholes are observed along the Dead Sea shore, Israel. The first is associated with vadose dissolution in Mount Sedom salt diapir. The second is associated with dissolution under the watertable along the retreating Dead Sea shore. The Dead Sea level is falling dramatically, mainly because of human activity. Simultaneously, the lake shores suffer tremendous impact since the late 1980s: The ground is collapsing and subsiding in hundreds of points along the lake, with people, roads and property being swallowed in the more catastrophic events. The collapse is believed to result from dissolution of salt by aggressive groundwater, following the retreat of Dead Sea level and the groundwater halocline. Geological evidence suggests that a previous major lake level fall occurrednaturally∼2000 BCE. This may provide a new explanation for a curious historical-geological phrase in the book of Genesis, suggested to record formation of collapse sinkholes which occurred in response to the historic falling lake level, associated with climatic desiccation.