Perilous
Times
Israel: Fast Sinking Levels of the Dead Sea causing worry
by Staff Writers
Tel Aviv, Israel (UPI) Apr 10, 2012
Human activity around the Dead Sea could threaten its existence
and cause it to dry up, Israeli scientists say.
Although the Dead Sea almost dried up more than 100,000 years ago
it recovered, researchers from Tel Aviv and Hebrew universities
said, but current drops in its level are more worrisome.
A drilling project revealed water levels have risen and fallen by
hundreds of feet in the last 200,000 years during periods of
extreme dryness and little rainfall, and during the last
interglacial period around 120,000 years ago the sea came close to
drying up entirely, they said.
However, despite the historical record that shows climate-driven
periods of drying were followed by recovery, there is cause for
concern about the current state of the Dead Sea, Zvi Ben-Avraham
of TAU's Minerva Dead Sea Research Center said, because the
current drop in the sea's water levels is caused by human
activity.
Today, the Dead Sea lies 1,400 feet below sea level and is
receding rapidly.
"What we see happening in the Middle East is something that mimics
a severe dry period, but this is not climate-enforced, this is a
man-made phenomenon," he said, caused by increasing amounts of
water being taken from rivers for irrigation before it reaches the
Dead Sea.
This is preventing the refilling of the sea by the waters of the
Jordan River, he said.