Editing Dead Sea (section)

===Receding shoreline{{anchor|recession}}===
Since 1930, when its surface was {{convert|1050|km2|abbr=on}} and its level was {{convert|390|m|ft|0|abbr=on}} below sea level, the Dead Sea has been monitored continuously. The Dead Sea has been rapidly shrinking since the 1960s because of diversion of incoming water from the Jordan River to the north<ref name=klein1987/> as part of the [[National Water Carrier]] scheme,<ref name=sinkholes/> completed in 1964.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://research.haifa.ac.il/~eshkol/kantorb.html | title=The National Water Carrier | first=Shmuel | last=Kantor | access-date=19 June 2021 | publisher=the [[University of Haifa]] | archive-date=2 October 2018 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181002192717/http://research.haifa.ac.il/~eshkol/kantorb.html | url-status=dead }}</ref> 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 water surface of {{convert|395|m|ft|0|abbr=on}} below sea level in 1970<ref name=klein1987>{{cite journal |last1=Klein |first1=C. |last2=Flohn |first2=H. |title=Contributions to the knowledge of the fluctuations of the Dead Sea level |journal=Theoretical and Applied Climatology |date=1987 |volume=38 |issue=3 |pages=151–156 |id={{INIST|7617200}} |doi=10.1007/BF00868099 |bibcode=1987ThApC..38..151K |s2cid=122554176 }}</ref> it fell {{convert|22|to|418|m|ft|0|abbr=on}} below sea level in 2006, reaching a drop rate of {{convert|1|m|ft|0|abbr=on}} per year.  By 2025 it reached a height of {{convert|439|m|ft|0|abbr=on}} below sea level, a drop of more than {{convert|1|m|ft|0|abbr=on}} per year. As the water level decreases, the characteristics{{vague|date=October 2021}} of the Sea and surrounding region may substantially change.

{{as of|2021}}, the surface of the Sea has shrunk by about 33 percent since the 1960s, which is partly attributed to the much-reduced flow of the Jordan River since the construction of the National Water Carrier project, and the amount of water from the rains reaching the Dead Sea has diminished even further since [[flash flood]]s started pouring into the sinkholes left by its shrinkage. The [[EcoPeace Middle East]], a joint Israeli-Palestinian-Jordanian environmental group, has estimated that the annual flow into the Dead Sea from the Jordan is {{as of|lc=yes|2021}} less than {{convert|100,000,000|m3}} of water, compared with former flows of between {{convert|1,200,000,000|m3}} and {{convert|1,300,000,000|m3}}.<ref name=sinkholes/>

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Year
! Water level (m)
! Surface (km<sup>2</sup>)
|-
| '''1930'''|| −390|| 1050
|-
| '''1980'''|| −400|| 680
|-
| '''1992'''|| −407|| 675
|-
| '''1997'''|| −411|| 670
|-
| '''2004'''|| −417|| 662
|-
| '''2010'''|| −423|| 655
|-
| '''2016'''|| −430.5|| 605
|}
Sources: Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research,<ref name="ISRAMAR"/> ''[[Haaretz]]'',<ref name="HRTZ"/> [[Jordan Valley Authority]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sesrtcic.org/Presentations/Water_Management_Symposium/Jordan/Jordan.pdf|title=River Basin Management|access-date=31 May 2014|author=Eng. Sa'ad Abu Hammour, JVA|publisher=Jordan Valley Authority|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140531104927/http://www.sesrtcic.org/Presentations/Water_Management_Symposium/Jordan/Jordan.pdf|archive-date=2014-05-31|url-status=usurped}}</ref>
[[File:The Dead Sea 1972-2011 - NASA Earth Observatory.jpg|thumb|center|upright=3|Views in 1972, 1989, and 2011 compared<ref>{{cite web|url=http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=77592|title=The Dead Sea : Image of the Day|date=6 April 2012|access-date=23 September 2013|archive-date=19 November 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151119021358/http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=77592|url-status=live}}</ref>]]

===={{anchor|sinkholes}}Sinkholes and their impact====
The Dead Sea level drop has been followed by a [[groundwater]] level drop, causing brines that used to occupy underground layers near the shoreline to be flushed out by freshwater. This is believed to be the cause of the recent appearance of large [[sinkhole]]s along the western shore—incoming freshwater dissolves salt layers, rapidly creating subsurface cavities that subsequently collapse to form these sinkholes.<ref>{{cite book|author=M. Abelson|author2=Y. Yechieli |author3=O. Crouvi |author4=G. Baer |author5=D. Wachs |author6=A. Bein |author7=V. Shtivelman |title=Evolution of the Dead Sea Sinkholes: special paper 401|publisher=[[Geological Society of America]]| pages=241–253| year=2006}}</ref> {{as of|2021}} [[Ein Gedi]], on the western coast, has been subject to a large number of sinkholes appearing in the area, attributed to the decline in the water level of the Dead Sea.<ref name=sinkholes>{{cite web | last=Tlozek | first=Eric | title=The Dead Sea is disappearing, leaving behind a landscape shattered by sinkholes | website=[[ABC News (Australia)|ABC News]] | publisher=[[Australian Broadcasting Corporation]] | date=10 June 2021 | url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-10/the-disappearing-dead-sea-sinkhole-science-en-gedi/100123858 | access-date=19 June 2021 | others=Cinematography: Alon Farago and Abu Saada; Graphics: Andres Gomez Isaza | archive-date=19 June 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210619034832/https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-10/the-disappearing-dead-sea-sinkhole-science-en-gedi/100123858 | url-status=live }}</ref>

As a result of the sinkholes, most beach resorts along the west shore of the northern basin had to be shut down, with just three remaining near the basin's northwest tip (see [[List of beaches in Palestine#Dead Sea|List of beaches in Palestine: Dead Sea]]).