THE DEAD SEA

The Dead Sea ,also called the Salt Sea, is a salt lake bordering Israel and the West bank to the west, and Jordan to the east.

The Dead Sea is 67 kilometres (42 mi) long and 18 kilometres (11 mi) wide at its widest point. It lies in the Jordan Rift Valley, and its main tributary is the Jordan River.

The Dead Sea is 378 m (1,240 ft) deep, the deepest hypersaline lake in the world. It is also one of the world's saltiest bodies of water, with 33.7% salinity. It is 8.6 times more salty than the ocean.

As the concentration of salt in the dead sea is very high, we are less dense than the Dead sea and hence, are able to float.

In recent decades, the Dead Sea has been rapidly shrinking because of diversion of incoming water from the Jordan River to the north. The southern end is fed by a canal maintained by the Dead Sea Works, a company that converts the sea's raw materials. From a depression of 395 m (1,296 ft) below sea level in 1970 it fell 22 m (72 ft) to 418 m (1,371 ft) below sea level in 2006, reaching a drop rate of 1 m (3 ft) per year. As the water level decreases, the characteristics of the Sea and surrounding region may substantially change.

Reference:

http://enwikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Sea

What caused the Dead Sea's formation?

The Dead Sea depression is a continuation of the Rift Valley depression , which was caused, millions of years ago, by continental drift. Because of the low rainfall in the catchment area of the Dead Sea, there is not enough water flowing into the sea for it to flow out, south to the gulf - so we have an inland sea. The Jordan River continually brings small amounts of salt into the sea. Since there is no outflow, the salt level gradually built up over the millions of years, until the Dead Sea is now so salty that fish can not survive in it - hence the name.

Reference:

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_caused_the_Dead_Sea's_formation