Sinkhole swallows unsuspecting Dead Sea tourist!
Dead Sea Sinkhole: Careful! Don't lean over too far!Courtesy HoshanaSound crazy? Well it could happen. Luckily recent victims of these amazing geological features have been rescued. Massive sinkholes along the Dead Sea shoreline are merely the most recent problem in a long list of human caused environmental issues associated with the Dead Sea. Scientists continue to warn that the Dead Sea is disappearing at an alarming rate, having shrunk by one third in the last few decades. In fact it could be completely dried up in less than 50 years. The water level is dropping approximately 3 feet a year due to massive irrigation in the surrounding countries of Israel, Jordan and Palestine, which are part of the most water-stressed region in the world. Increasing populations, development and massive irrigation all affect the limited freshwater resources. The Jordan River, which used to be the main contributor of freshwater to the Dead Sea, has now been reduced to a small channel due to diversion of water for agricultural irrigation. Scientist are struggling to find ways to reduce these impacts on the Dead Sea, including the possibility of opening a canal from the Red Sea (however this has its own ecological problems).
Over 3000 sinkholes have appeared along the banks of the Dead Sea, and several thousand more are estimated to burst open soon, catching residents, tourists and livestock completely by surprise. As the water levels recede, the fragile, salty, subterranean layer of soil bordering the sea is dissolved by underground aquifers and infiltrating surface water, producing underground caves that collapse and cause massive sinkholes that suddenly appear, swallowing everything above.
Dead Sea Evaporation Ponds: Changes in the Dead Sea from 1989 to 2001. Evaporation ponds located in the southern third of the sea.Courtesy NASA
Along with irrigation impacts, both Israel and Jordan also purposefully evaporate water from the Dead Sea in order to mine the phosphate salts for use in a variety of agricultural, chemical, and personal products. Both countries have also built hotels and resorts along the shore that use massive quantities of water for the thousands of tourists who come to the Dead Sea for its therapeutic value and other unique properties.
The Dead Sea is yet another unique body of water that will soon be lost, like the Aral Sea of central Asia, as a result of unchecked human development and poor governmental policy decisions. Will we never learn our lessons?
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wow thats pretty scary i mean that sounds almost fake. but thats really sad how the dead sea drops 3 ft every year!
i know it sounds like a sci-fi movie, people just getting sucked into sink holes!
thats scary!
this is creepy!
when my brother saw the picture of the sinkhole he said"woah" yea it is woah!:)
This is awesome!!! I have learned alot and I like it!!! I just can't stand the thought of the way they live, a very hard life.
This is not awesome but yet very sad how someone could just be jogging to discover that he was swallowed in a sink hole
wow! this is very interesting how the dead sea is now drying up. how sad!
That is soooo cool i think!! Like its kinda sad that ppl get swallowed up but its like something out of a movie. its the shizz yo!
weird and sad.
Thats the biggest and deepest sinkhole ive ever seen!!!!!! OMG
it's looks so scary
before i read this, i had no idea sinkholes acually existed.i thought authors made them up for stories. that is totally amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!
haha ya me too. i never really thought they were real either :)
dude i think that thats cool but sad also. but i also think it's very interesting.
Id b one to lean over to far lol :P
COOL!But sad
I wonder if that could happen any where else
really scary! i would stay away from the dead sea if i were a tourist!
Actually, swimming in the dead sea is very safe. there are no living organismisms in the dead sea.... duh!
if your swimming in it your a living organism
it is very surprising that no one has been killed by walking into this deep sinkholes. When someone does, this will receive much more attention
I heard that it's full of salt and stuff and i don't think i would go to that :( :) The dead sea scrolls sound really neat though!
How deep are the sinkholes? How do you rescue some guy from something like that? Creepy.
this is so unfortunate. the dead sea is famous for what is stands for and for the discoveries that have ahppened around it. this sea is the saltiest, 8 times more salty than an average ocean and for it to disseappear is for hisotry to disseappear. it is extremely unfortunate what happened to the boy and what is happening to the dead sea.
wow... that guy in the picture shure is askin' to be "swallowed", the way he's leanin' over that HUGE hole... how intelligent... :b
its sad hoe the sea is drying up and those holes are creepy
we need to take more care of our enviornment!!!!
I didn't think sink holes were real til I saw this! LOL X3 but it's also sad
that looks so scary! I would not want to do that.
That's just sad how he sea is drying up. :( boo hoo. The sink hole looks scary...
ROAR.
well thats pretty sweet, but a bummer :P
Bummer. . . .
How can anyone fall into that sinkhole? I mean it's common sense! stay away from big holes in the ground.
How can anyone fall into a hole that big? I mean stay away from big holes!!!!!!!!!!
yea how can u fall in a huge hole thers some ying u see thats big and its deep and its in the ground hello its called geting smart for once
I would be scared to go there
yes...just lean over the big hole...
it gose like this ... HAY YOU GUYS LOOK AT THIS BIG HOLE IN THE GROUND AHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhh
omg that is so scary i have never heard of that
The Dead Sea is an ecological treasure.I have visited there many times as a tourist, and most recently as a journalist. The situation is very bad: http://www.vjmovement.com/truth/227
Very interesting story. The dead sea is basically a lake at the bottom of a rift valley, like the rift valleys in East and Central Africa. (Just thought I'd mention that because no one seems to have brought it up yet.0
That is amazing!
No one actually died
this was kind of interesting
I was surpised that there were sinkholes by the Dead Sea. It was cool !
This sounds similar to what is happening in the south west U.S. with the massive water diversion and consumption devastating the colorado and other water resources.
Can anyone spell "freak accident" ?? =P That's just as probable as dying from lightning...
Wow, all I can say. Wow. Haha. Pretty sad. I always thought it would be sweet to float in the Dead Sea...but those sinkholes kinda put me off. Haha. (:
this is so unfortunate. the dead sea is famous for what is stands for and for the discoveries that have ahppened around it.
Tht iz the weirdest thing ihave ever herd of beside tht kind of thimg better not happen aroumd here caus tht would b terrifying!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The other day I was running and I stepped into a snake hole and I thought that the same thing happened to me... But luckily I made it out ok. I got a grass stain on my knee but I will be ok.
wow, that is really sad, what is happening to the Dead Sea. yes, human beings are idiotic, unwise morons when it comes to learing from our own ecological disasters...which is why we are doing nothing to slow the shortage of water losses all over the world. how unfortunate that humans will not realize this until it is far too late.
i think its amazing that this land has held so many wonders and the fact that giant holes suddenly appear in the ground is a great mystery and very tragic to anyone who falls in but this just shows you that you should be very careful
that guy is crazy for leaning over soo far :)
sinkholes are awsome.
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Stay away from big holes!!
that is really sad that someone can lose their life out of curiousity like that.
this is not a hard problem to solve scientists are just a bunch of media pigs desperate for attention so people feel sympathetic towards their cause the logical thing to do in this situation is to set up a water pump that constantly puts in new water so we are less dependant on the water coming from jordan etc....
this article s pretty cool. however it is sad. lakes and rivers are all drying up all over the world because of mass production and irrigation. hopfully in the next few yrs people will find better ways of using reasources so they dont dry up or disappear.
STAY OUT OF THE DESERT.............DUH!
Does "making the desert bloom" mean the Israliets need to raise crops that require so much water? Why not conserve? Grow less water dependant crops.
i wonder what happens to the person if they fall into the huge hole? what if they are by themselves!
very interesting but i can understand how it happens how that soil gives away peace im out
thats really scary! the sinkhole is huge, it kind of scares me. :P
old testament scripture is being fulfilled. the salt water will disapear, when the basin is empty you will see fresh water come and fish will be living in it.
This is sort of like that huge sinkhole in Uruguay or something that swallowed a building.
that is fake there's no way someone could just fall i...AAAAAAAaaaaaaaaahhhhh...
omg thats scary!!!! (shiver)
this is really crazy!!!i hope like this nevr happenz iin america :'(
I hope that scientist can help out with this big issue and prevent it from happening anywhere else!!
omygosh!!!that would be creepy to watch someone fall into one of those sink holes!!!! i wouldn't want that to happen to me or to someone that i knew. how big are they anyway, the look GIANT!!!!!!!!
that is really sad becuase the dead sea is sweet and if it dries up a piece of history will be lost along with toursm haha
it is not human caused!
2 bad for him. where did he fall
I'm glad that they were able to rescue the guy and I think it's sad that the dead sea is drying up!
y would the let people tour this place if it isn't safe?
I tink it is very cruel for humans to just destroy rivers like that
Wow, that is amazing and scary at the same time! It's especially crazy that at the time a cave would collapse then and there.
...and I thought the sinkholes were bad in Woodbury!!!
That was an awsome vidio!
i thought it was crazy, i sould not wantto get stuck in a sinkhole
The Aral sea never heard of it. How did it dissapear?
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