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Impressive salt “chimneys” discovered in the Dead Sea – UNIAN
Salinity levels in the Dead Sea are so high that the brine is still less dense than the surrounding water.
In an interdisciplinary project coordinated by the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research, scientists discovered meter-long salt pipes at the bottom of the Dead Sea.
Chimney-like structures formed by the crystallization of minerals. The most famous examples are black smokers found along mid-ocean ridges and the tuff towers of Mono Lake, Forbes writes.
Black smokers are known to secrete hot mineral-rich fluids, forming sulfur and iron minerals once the fluids come into contact with cold seawater. But the pipes in the Dead Sea are formed by flows of highly saline soil…
