Scientists at the University of California, Santa Barbara have identified the mechanism for the "salt rain" in the Dead Sea, when salt flakes fall from the warm upper layer of water. Until now, researchers did not understand how this phenomenon occurs and whether this process can occur in other hypersaline lakes. This is reported by Science Alert.
According to the findings of the researchers, the upper layer of the sea is heated by the sun's rays and becomes warmer than the water below it. Water from the surface begins to evaporate, which increases the salinity of the layer and contributes to the formation of microscopic salt crystals. At the same time, small volumes of warm water mix with cold layers, as a result, salt flakes grow and sink to the bottom, where large halite structures accumulate.
A similar mechanism can explain the formation of salt deposits up to a kilometer thick in the earth's crust.
The Dead Sea is a hypersaline lake in which the water is almost 10 times saltier than ordinary sea water. This is due to the intensive development of minerals and the use of most of the inflowing tributaries. It is estimated that sea level falls by an average of a meter per year.