Dead Sea buoyancy" OR "Dead Sea chemical composition" OR "Dead Sea saline properties

Based on the text from The_world_of_wonders_-_a_record_of_things_wonderful_in_nature_science_and_art.pdf, the Dead Sea possesses remarkable saline properties which result in unusual buoyancy.

Saline Properties and Chemical Composition

The Dead Sea is also known as the 'Salt Sea' and the 'Sea of the Plain,' with its waters being unparalleled in their saline properties.

• Salt Content: While ordinary sea water contains about 3.5% solid constituents by weight, the water of the Dead Sea contains significantly more. According to an analysis by Marcet, its solid constituents amount to 24.5%, and an analysis by Klaprath puts the figure as high as 42.5%. Despite this high concentration of ponderable matter, the water is perfectly transparent when examined in a glass.
• Source of Salt: The water's remarkable saltness is derived from a long, low mountain range on its south-western shore, which consists of beds of rock salt between 100 and 150 feet thick and nine miles long. Numerous rills from this range constantly flow into the sea.
• Increasing Salinity: The Dead Sea has no outlet, and as the waters of the Jordan and other tributaries flow into it, the sea maintains its level through abundant evaporation. Because evaporation removes water but leaves the salt, the Dead Sea's proportion of saline substance must be increasing every year.
• Other Components: The sea also contains bitumen, which is found floating in blocks, and lumps of sulphur as large as walnuts are found on its shores.

Buoyancy and Density

The high concentration of salts gives the sea its unusual buoyancy.

• Weight: The water is extraordinarily heavy; a pail of Dead Sea water weighs nearly ten pounds more than a pail of ordinary fresh water. Dr. Salisbury of the American Scientific Association stated that while a cubic foot of distilled water weighs 61.32 lbs, a cubic foot of Dead Sea water weighs 71.175 lbs.
• Floating: This density makes floating effortless. An American traveller, Mr. Stephens, noted, 'I could have lain there and read with perfect ease... in fact, I could have slept'. Another observer, Mr. Paxton, stated, 'It requires an effort to keep the feet and legs under so as to use them with advantage in swimming'. The historian Josephus recorded that the Roman emperor Vespasian had men bound and thrown into the sea, and they floated on its surface.