It's not dead yet!

September 27, 2011 10:20 AM

The first scientific diving expedition in the Dead Sea has found freshwater springs on the seafloor, along with carpets of micro-organisms. The saltiest body of water on Earth is still dropping three feet every year.
posted by gottabefunky (16 comments total)

Better Dead than Red.
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 10:22 AM on September 27, 2011 [6 favorites]

The first scientific diving expedition in the [Dead] Sea

Can that be true? People have been going to the Dead Sea (and the Red Sea, for that matter) for a long, long, long time. This is the first time a scientist has taken a dive in it?
posted by pracowity at 10:40 AM on September 27, 2011 [2 favorites]

Interesting, although it is worth pointing out, the first scientific diving mission in the Red Sea was probably when Cousteau went there in the 1950s. Maybe the title from the video just refers to it being this specific team's first scientific diving mission in the Red Sea.
posted by snofoam at 10:41 AM on September 27, 2011 [1 favorite]

It's probably pretty hard to swim downwards with all that salt buoying you up.
posted by shakespeherian at 10:42 AM on September 27, 2011

Love this kind of shit.
posted by Melismata at 10:44 AM on September 27, 2011

Which sea is this post about?
posted by Sys Rq at 10:48 AM on September 27, 2011 [2 favorites]

It is actually about the Dead Sea, I was confused by the typo in the post, although I would be surprised if no one had done scientific diving there before.
posted by snofoam at 10:53 AM on September 27, 2011

The video -- was there a commentary I missed? Because that was a lot of breather and bubbling noises. Also, the youtube comments seem to be a bunch of alphanumeric code. What?
posted by yesster at 10:59 AM on September 27, 2011

What?

Oh, for the love of Mike! Dan Brown is down there!
posted by GenjiandProust at 11:03 AM on September 27, 2011 [3 favorites]

Mod note: Fixed the typo in the main post, carry on
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 11:16 AM on September 27, 2011

The saltiest body of water on Earth is still dropping three feet every year.

Or roughly the same as the coast of British Columbia. cymbal crash
posted by hal9k at 11:25 AM on September 27, 2011 [3 favorites]

Boy there's a Lot of salt pillars down there!
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 12:11 PM on September 27, 2011 [4 favorites]

I've been in the Dead Sea. I won't say that I swam in it because all I did was try to remain head above water and not touch my eyes. Lift feet up too high and your head goes down. I came out of the water a salt encrusted mess. Glad I did it but would probably never do it again.

I can only imagine what havoc all that salt would cause to submersibles/optics/instruments needed to study the Dead Sea.
posted by futz at 1:54 PM on September 27, 2011

Israel and Jordan are both marketing Dead Sea cosmetic products - facial cleansers and whatnot.
posted by BinGregory at 6:29 PM on September 27, 2011

Then I'd like to dig that shit up and see what I find. You know its some crazy ass excellent preserved stuff from thousands of years ago. Dinosaur dogs and shit.

No, don't do that, that episode always makes me cry.
posted by stevis23 at 8:24 PM on September 27, 2011 [1 favorite]

Israel and Jordan are both marketing Dead Sea cosmetic products

Really, I hadn't noticed.
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 4:58 AM on September 28, 2011