Earthen dike leakage at the dead sea

The Dead Sea is a terminal lake located in the biggest pull-apart basins punctuating the Jordan-Dead Sea Transform. It is the lowest place on Earth (428 m bsl, 2014). The coastal areas are crossed by complex faulted zones and are characterized by highly karstic and fractured rock formations genetically connected with faults. Climate conditions range from semi-arid to arid. The potential evaporation rate is about 2500 mm/year. The riparian states withdraw large percentages of their fresh water from the Jordan River, the main tributary of the Dead Sea. A downward trajectory of the lake level was first noticed in the 1960s. Then, it has been dropping at an increasing rate: from about 60 cm/year in the 1970s up to 1.5 m/year in the 2010s. The magnitude of the shoreline withdrawal can reach several kilometers. Most of the new empty spaces have been progressively used by two mineral companies to build up salt evaporation ponds. From the early 1980s, sinkholes, subsidence and later landslides have appeared at an increasing rate all along the coast. In the 1990s, ground collapses started impeding the industrial development of the Arab Potash Company. Since then, security engineers are fighting bitterly against the multi-facetted salt karst issues to preserve their dikes. Here, sinkholes and subsidence leading to dikes leakage have a significant economic impact. The degradation of the Dead Sea coast is worsening and an early warning system to help avoiding further losses as much as possible should be set up rapidly.