Image Details

God’s paint pot? When the Dead Sea’s water level falls as much as it has in recent years, sinkholes appear along its shores. The sediments are mostly gravel with mud, sometimes underlain by a salt layer. When the salt water of the lake drops, it exposes this rock to less salty groundwater that dissolves the salt, creating underground cavities. Eventually the roofs of these cavities collapse, creating the circular pits shown here.

The brownish color in the foreground sinkhole may be due to clay suspended in the water; the orange color of the most distant sinkhole is probably caused by bacteria.