Aerial views of earthen dikes separating salt evaporation ponds along the Israeli shore of the south lake of the Dead Sea, directly adjacent to the Jordanian border. Salt water here is ten times as salty as sea water. The flow rate from pond to pond is controlled to precipitate out all of the Sodium Chloride (NaCl, or table salt) from the Dead Sea water which is pumped up to them from the north lake. The floor of these primary evaporation pans is going up by approx. 20cm/year due to NaCl salts precipatating out of the water. The crystals of NaCl bond to take on seemingly organic patterns of white amidst the hyper-saline green water of the ponds. After all of the NaCl is precipated out, the salt water is pumped up to a second cascade of evaporation ponds to concentrate the potassium chloride (KCl), which is exported as potash, a component of agricultural fertilizer. The Dead Sea Works produces 10% of the worlds potash, which is 1.4% of Israel's GDP. There is a similar potash works on the Jordanian side of the border, but it's somewhat smaller than the Dead Sea Works in Israel.
- Filename
- STNMTZ_20080508_0647.tif
- Copyright
- ©2008 George Steinmetz
- Image Size
- 5616x3744 / 60.2MB
- Contained in galleries
- Dead Sea