Editing Dead Sea (section)

===Lake formation===
[[File:ISS-55 Nile River delta, Egypt.jpg|thumb|[[NASA]] photo showing depth of the Dead Sea [[Drainage basin|basin]] (slightly below center). The Mediterranean Sea is on the right, with the Suez Canal visible connecting it to the Red Sea on left (slightly above center).]]

According to Kafri, during the late [[Neogene]], i.e. in the [[Pliocene]] (ended c. 2.5 million years ago), the [[eustatic sea level]] was at 50–100 metres [[above sea level|above the current sea level]], thus flooding the northern valleys connecting the Mediterranean Sea with the [[Jordan Rift Valley]], which led to the creation of a crooked-shaped lagoon. This high eustatic sea level situation subsequently came to an end, and the ocean could no longer flood the area. Thus, the long lagoon became a landlocked lake, which – due to the high evaporation rate – retreated toward the lower, southern part of the rift valley.<ref name=Kafri2010/> However, Mordechai Stein considers the formation process as not yet clarified, speaking of a late Pliocene-early [[Pleistocene]] process in which tectonics might also have played a part in blocking water ingression from the Mediterranean to its former bay or lagoon.<ref name=Stein/>

The first prehistoric lake to follow the Sedom Lagoon is named '''Lake Amora''' (which possibly appeared in the early Pleistocene; its sediments developed into the Amora (Samra) Formation, dated to over 200–80 [[kyr]] [[Before Present|BP]]), followed by '''[[Lake Lisan]]''' (c. 70–14 kyr) and finally by the Dead Sea.<ref name=Stein/><ref name=Kafri2010/><ref name=Torfstein/>