Image Details

Israel Zak, courtesy Amos Frumkin

Mt. Sedom is a constantly rising and ever-expanding mountain of salt and rock (known as a diapir) that has been pushed up vertically from faults on the margins of the Dead Sea over the millennia. In the photo, geologist Amos Frumkin inspects several layers of this vertical bedding that can be seen near the top of the mountain. The layers were first deposited at the bottom of an earlier lake several million years ago.