Structural control of sinkholes and subsidence hazards along the Jordanian Dead Sea coast

For about four decades, the Dead Sea (DS) level and the surrounding water table has been dropping dramatically. At least from the eighties, the direct vicinity of the Lisan Peninsula (LP), Jordan, has been facing high rates of subsidence and sinkhole hazards. Between 2000 and 2002, the Arab Potash Company (APC) lost two salt evaporation ponds resulting in a loss of $70 million. In the fertile plain of Ghor al Haditha (GAH), three deep and wide bowl-shaped subsidence areas threaten human activities and infrastructures. Over the part of the Lisan Peninsula that emerged before the 1960s, relict fossil sinkholes occurred everywhere, whereas new collapses constantly appear in the southern area only. In this paper, we have integrated 15 years of field observations related to sinkholes and subsidence with interpretation of space borne radar interferometric outputs, aerial photographs and satellite images. This has helped to place hazardous areas in their geological context and to clarify them within the framework of the general tectonic setting of the area.     

Dead Sea sinkholes – an ever-developing hazard

 Sinkhole development along the western shore of the Dead Sea became a major concern in 1990 with the appearance of a series of holes 2–15 m diameter and up to 7 m deep in the Newe Zohar area. One of these sinkholes, below the asphalt surface of the main road along the western shore of the Dead Sea, was opened by a passing bus. Repeated infilling and collapse of these holes indicated the extent of this ongoing process and the significance of this developing hazard. Since then sinkholes have developed in other areas including Qalia, Ein Samar, Ein Gedi and Mineral Beach. Three main types of sinkholes have been recognized. Gravel holes occurring in alluvial fans, mud holes occurring in the intervening bays of clay deposits between fans and a combination of both types at the front of young alluvial fans where they overlap mud flats. Fossil, relict sinkholes have been observed in the channels of some old alluvial fans. Sinkhole development is directly related to the regression of the Dead Sea and the corresponding lowering of the regional water table. Continuation of this process widens the neritic zone enveloping the sea and increases the sinkhole hazard of the region. Received: 4 February 1999 · Accepted: 8 April 1999     

Human-induced geological hazards along the Dead Sea coast

The Dead Sea is a terminal lake whose level is currently dropping at a rate of about 1 m per year due to the over exploitation of all its tributaries. The lowering started about four decades ago but geological hazards appeared more and more frequently from the end of the 1980s. The water level lowering is matched by a parallel groundwater level drop, which results in an increasing intensity of underground and surface water flow. The diagonal interface between the Dead Sea brine and the fresh groundwater is pushed downwards and seawards. Nowadays, sinkholes, subsidence, landslides and reactivated salt-karsts affect wide coastal segments. Until now, mainly infrastructures were damaged and few people/animals were injured, but the ongoing development of tourism in this very attractive situation will increase the risk if precautionary measures are not included in the development plans. This paper discusses the main observations made all around the Dead Sea and shed a light on the differences between the geological hazards of the western shore (Israel, Palestinian Authority) and the eastern shore (Jordan). It is the first attempt to bring together an overview of the human-induced geological hazards encountered along the Dead Sea coast.     

Geophysical prediction and following development sinkholes in two Dead Sea areas, Israel and Jordan

Geophysical methods—seismic refraction (SRFR), electrical resistivity tomography (ERT), and microgravity—were applied to the Dead Sea (DS) sinkhole problem in the Ein Gedi area at the earlier stage of the sinkhole development (1998–2002). They allowed determining the sinkhole formation mechanism and localizing the sinkhole hazardous zones. The SRFR method permitted to delineate the underground edge of a salt layer at the depth of 50 m. The salt edge was shaped like the sinkhole line on the surface. It was concluded that the sinkhole development is linked to the salt edge. Geoelectrical quasi-3D mapping based on the ERT technique detected large resistivity anomalies with 250–300 m² diameter and 25–35 m deep. The Ein Gedi area has been also mapped by the use of Microgravity method. The residual Bouguer gravity anomaly map shows negative anomalies arranged along the edge of the salt layer. Those gravity anomalies overall are very similar in plan to the resistivity distribution in this area. The results of forward modeling indicate that both high resistivity and residual gravity anomalies are associated with a subsurface decompaction of the soil mass and deep cavity at the sinkhole site. Following monitoring of the sinkhole development carried out by the Geological Survey of Israel confirmed our suggestions. The drilling of numerous boreholes verified the location of the salt edge. Geographical Information System (GIS) database testifies that during 2003–2009 new sinkholes are continuing to develop along the salt edge within a narrow 50–100 m wide strip oriented approximately in north–south direction (slightly parallel to the shoreline). No promotion in west–east direction (perpendicularly to the DS shoreline) was observed in Israel. Collapse of sinkholes and their clustering have been occurred within the area of high resistivity anomaly and negative residual gravity anomaly. Similar studies carried out at the Ghor Al-Haditha area (Jordan) have shown that sinkholes there are also arranged along the winding line conforming to the salt edge. In this area sinkholes are slowly moved to the Dead Sea direction. Results of geophysical studies in numerous DS sites indicate similar sinkhole development. It allowed generating of the sinkhole formation model based on ancient (10,000–11,000-year old) salt belt girding the Dead Sea along its shores     

Subsidence et effondrements le long du littoral jordanien de la mer Morte : apports de la gravimétrie et de l'interférométrie radar différentielle

The Dead Sea shore is affected by major subsidence and sinkholes hazards due to the decrease of the sea level. The frequency of resulting accidents increased during the last four decades. Those phenomena could be at the origin of the catastrophic destruction of a major salt evaporation pond on 22 March 2000. In this paper, we show the main results of eight years of research in gravimetry and radar interferometry devoted to identify potentially hazardous areas, at different scales along the Jordanian Dead Sea coast, from the metric scale (gravimetric approach) to the kilometric one (interferometric approach). To cite this article: D. Closson et al., C. R. Geoscience 335 (2003).     

Monitoring of Dead Sea water surface variation using multi-temporal satellite data and GIS

Remote sensing (RS) and geographic information systems (GIS) are very useful for environmental-related studies, particularly in the field of surface water studies such as monitoring of lakes. The Dead Sea is exposed to very high evaporating process with considerable scarcity of water sources, thus leading to a remarkable shrinkage in its water surface area. The lake suffers from dry out due to the negative balance of water cycle during the previous four decades. This paper discusses the application of RS, GIS, and Global Positioning System to estimate the lowering and the shrinkage of Dead Sea water surface over the period 1810–2005. A set of multi-temporal remote sensing images were collected and processed to show the lakes aerial extend shrinkage from 1973 up to 2004. Remote sensing data were used to extract spatial information and to compute the surface areas for Dead Sea for various years. The current study aims at estimating the fluctuation of Dead Sea level over the study period with special emphasis on the environmental impact assessment that includes the degradation level of the Dead Sea. The results indicated that there is a decrease of 20 m in the level of the Dead Sea that has occurred during the study period. Further, the results showed that the water surface area of the Dead Sea has shrunk from 934.26 km² in 1973 to 640.62 km² in 2004.     

Use of ground-penetrating radar for assessment of potential sinkhole conditions: an example from Ghor al Haditha area,Jordan

. Sinkholes are near-surface indicators of active karst features at depth, such as cavities, conduits and solutionally enlarged fractures. This study tests the usefulness of ground-penetrating radar (GPR) to identify and locate buried sinkholes as a means of interpreting the existence of these subsurface hydraulically-active karst features. GPR survey was made at the Ghor al Haditha area west of the Jordan-DSTF in the Jordan Valley Escarpment at the eastern Dead Sea shoreline. GPR profiles (100 MHz) made along the eastern Dead Sea shoreline showed a trough-like pattern of radar reflections outlining a series of possible filled sinkholes. This feature is about 38 m wide and about 12 m deep. Its width is consistent with the width of the feature obtained from the topographic map of the area. The GPR survey suggests that this feature has been filled with relatively dense and resistive materials. This structure lies almost directly above a major water bearing zone.     

Identification of sinkhole development mechanism based on a combined geophysical study in Nahal Hever South area (Dead Sea coast of Israel)

Seismic refraction, magnetic resonance sounding (MRS), and the transient electromagnetic (TEM) method were applied to investigate the geological and hydrogeological conditions in the Nahal Hever South sinkhole development area at the Dead Sea (DS) coast of Israel. Microgravity and MRS results reliably reveal large karst cavity in the central part of investigated area. The map of the seismic velocity shows that sinkholes in Nahal Hever can be divided into two major groups: sinkholes close to the salt edge and sinkholes over compact salt formations between a few tens to a hundred meters from the major cavern. The present study shows that the formation of sinkholes of the first group is caused by soil collapsing into the cavern. In the area occupied by sinkholes of the second group, karst was not detected either by MRS or by seismic diffraction methods. TEM results reveal shallow clay layer saturated with DS brine underlain sinkholes of this group. It allows suggestion that the water drainage and intensive water circulation during rain events wash out fine rock particles from the unsaturated zone into the pre-existing cavern, initiating the formation of sinkholes of the second group. Karst development takes place at a very low bulk resistivity (<1 Ω m) of the DS aquifer, attesting to the fact that pores are filled with a highly saline solution. Refilling of the karstic cavities with collapsing and flushed soil slows down sinkhole development in the area. The sinkhole formation cycle at the site is estimated at 10 years. Sinkhole development throughout the studied area is triggered by a drop in the level of the DS, which reduces the head of the confined aquifer and the strength of the overlain sediments.

Landslides along the Jordanian Dead Sea coast triggered by the lake level lowering

The level of the Dead Sea lowers 1 m/year and this rate is in acceleration. The decline is causing one of the major environmental disasters of the twenty-first century. The freshwater resources management policy of Israel, Jordan, and Palestine controls the phenomenon. Since the 1960s, the level of this terminal lake dropped by 28 m and its surface shrunk by one-third. In the 1990s, international builders created major tourist resorts and industrial plants along the Jordanian shore while, during the same period, geological hazards triggered by the level lowering spread out. From the very beginning of the year 2000, sinkholes, subsidence, landslides, and river erosion damaged infrastructures more and more frequently: dikes, bridges, roads, houses, factories, pipes, crops, etc. Until present, scientific articles about this ongoing disaster concerned only sinkholes and subsidence phenomena. This paper focuses on the landslides issue along the Jordanian coast. Based on a set of ground observations collected since 1999, the dynamics of the triggering factors in relation to the evolution of the hydro-geological setting is discussed. It is inferred that the recent industrial and tourist infrastructures never took into consideration the very important geotechnical constraints resulting from the Dead Sea lowering.     

Sinkhole characterization in the Dead Sea area using airborne laser scanning

Since the early 1980s, the Dead Sea coast has undergone a near catastrophic land deterioration as a result of a rapid lake-level drop. One conspicuous expression of this deterioration is the formation of sinkholes fields that puncture the coastal plains. The evolution of sinkholes along nearly 70-km strip has brought to a halt the regional development in this well-known and toured area and destroyed existing infrastructures. Great efforts are being invested in understanding the phenomena and in development of monitoring techniques. We report in this paper the application of airborne laser scanning for characterization of sinkholes. We demonstrate first the appropriateness of laser scanning for this task and its ability to provide detailed 3D information on this phenomenon. We describe then an autonomous means for their extraction over large regions and with high level of accuracy. Extraction is followed by their detailed geometric characterization. Using this high-resolution data, we show how sinkholes of 0.5 m radius and 25 cm depth can be detected from airborne platforms as well as the geomorphic features surrounding them. These sinkhole measures account for their embryonic stage, allowing tracking them at an early phase of their creation.     

Sinkhole hazards prediction at Ghor Al Haditha, Dead Sea, Jordan: “Salt Edge” and “Tectonic” models contribution—a rebuttal to “Geophysical prediction and following development sinkholes in two Dead Sea areas, Israel and Jordan, by: Ezersky, M.G., Eppelbaum, L.V., Al-Zoubi,A.3, Keydar S., Abueladas, A-R., Akkawi E., and Medvedev, B.”

Mikhail Ezersky et al. have published the article “Geophysical prediction and following development sinkholes in two Dead Sea areas, Israel and Jordan” (February 2013) in which the paper “Salt karst and tectonics: sinkholes development along tension cracks between parallel strike-slip faults, Dead Sea, Jordan” published by Closson D, Abou Karaki N, Hallot F in 2009 (Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 34(10), 1408–1421) is questioned. In this short paper, we propose some clarifications and discuss the criticisms of these authors.     

Salt-dissolution-induced subsidence in the Dead Sea area detected by applying interferometric techniques to ALOS Palsar Synthetic Aperture Radar images

This paper discusses the interpretation of ground motions detected in the dried up Lynch Strait, Dead Sea area, by applying radar interferometric techniques to ALOS Palsar Synthetic Aperture Radar images. Four ALOS scenes spanning from December 15, 2007 to May 17, 2008 have been processed leading to the generation of five interferograms. Three ground deformation zones have been detected. One of them shows surface displacement which could be related to an earthquake (ML 3.1) that took place on April 13, 2008. High rates of subsidence have been measured in the northern Lynch Strait. They suggest that these subsidence phenomena follow the same trend of rapid increase as sinkholes. Additional measurements should be carried out in order to refine this observation.

The comparison between sinkholes' distributions in the Lynch Strait with that of Ghor Al Haditha, six kilometers eastward, supports the idea that the earthquake that hit the southern Dead Sea on April 23, 1979 (M 5.1) reactivated faults and fractures in the Lynch Strait triggering the development of sinkholes and subsidence in the frame of the Dead Sea recession.     

Karst system developed in salt layers of the Lisan Peninsula,Dead Sea,Jordan

The Lisan Peninsula, Jordan, is a massive salt layer accumulated in the inner part of the Dead Sea’s precursory lakes. This tongue-shaped, emergent land results in a salt diapir uplifted in the Dead Sea strike-slip regional stress field and modified by the water level fluctuations of the last lake during the Holocene. These two elements, associated with dissolution caused by rainfall and groundwater circulation, resulted in an authentic karst system. Since the 1960s, the Dead Sea lowering of 80 cm to 1 m per year caused costly damages to the industrial plant set up on the peninsula. The Lisan karst system is described in this article and the components of the present dynamic setting clarified.     

Numerical analysis of the groundwater regime in the western Dead Sea escarpment, Israel + West Bank

Water is scarce in the semi-arid to arid regions around the Dead Sea, where water supply mostly relies on restricted groundwater resources. Due to increasing population in this region, the regional aquifer system is exposed to additional stress. This results in the continuous decrease in water level of the adjacent Dead Sea. The interaction of an increasing demand for water due to population growth and the decrease of groundwater resources will intensify in the near future. Thus, the water supply situation could worsen significantly unless sustainable water resource management is conducted. In this study, we develop a regional groundwater flow model of the eastern and southern Judea Group Aquifer to investigate the groundwater regime in the western Dead Sea drainage basin of Israel and the West Bank. An extensive geological database was developed and consequently a high-resolution structural model was derived. This structural model was the basis for various groundwater flow scenarios. The objective was to capture the spatial heterogeneity of the aquifer system and to apply these results to the southern part of the study area, which has not been studied in detail until now. As a result we analyzed quantitatively the flow regime, the groundwater mass balance and the hydraulic characteristics (hydraulic conductivity and hydraulic head) of the cretaceous aquifer system and calibrated them with PEST. The calibrated groundwater flow model can be used for integrated groundwater water management purposes in the Dead Sea area, especially within the framework of the SUMAR-Project.     

Variation of the Chemistry of the Dead Sea Brine as Consequence of the Decreasing Water Level

For many years, the Dead Sea suffers from an annual inflow deficiency of about one billion cubic meters, flood and baseflow. The water level changes are related to the majority of surface water inflows diverted for irrigation purposes, in addition to intensive loss of water by the high rate of evaporation and industrial water use. This causes the Dead Sea water level to decline about 35 m within the last 50 years for a long-term average of about 0.79 m per year. The changes in the hydrochemical composition were simulated experimentally to determine the changes that take place as a function of brine water evaporation level and its density. The Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) and the density of the Dead Sea water varies as a function of its water evaporation level changes. It was found that the density variation is not following a linear function with respect to water volume changes. But it follows the total amount of precipitate that occurred at different water levels. The electrical conductivity (EC) changes with respect to time and the prevailing temperature. There was no formula to calculate the high salinity of brine water above the normal ocean water. Consequently, the EC measurements were adopted to represent the Dead Sea water salinity. But in this research a converging factor (0.80971) has been found to convert the TDS values into salinity values. On contrary, the pH values revealed an inverse relationship with respect to the evaporation levels.     

Time-dependent modeling of the Baltic entrance area. 2. Water and salt exchange of the Baltic Sea

A time-dependent model for stratification and circulation within the Baltic entrance area (Gustafsson 2000) is tested against observed salinities for the period 1961–1993. Although the Baltic Sea is one of the largest estuarine systems on earth, this model could be applicable to smaller estuarine systems and embayments with tidal exchange. The seasonal cycle of freshwater flux across the sill area does not follow the seasonal cycle of freshwater supply to the Baltic Sea. The seasonal variation of the flux is a combined effect of the seasonal variation in freshwater supply, in Baltic mean sea level, and in dispersion of salt across the sills. The seasonal variation in dispersion of salt is due to the seasonal cycle of sea level variability. The model is used to predict the inflow of high saline water to the Baltic Sea. The resulting inflow time-series is consistent with variations in the deep-water salinity and temperature in the deeper parts of the Baltic Sea. A comparison with previous estimates of the magnitude of major Baltic inflows shows that the model is able to reproduce the characteristics fairly well although the magnitude of the flows of water and salt appears lower than other estimates. It is shown that a climatic change that increases the wind mixing does not significantly change the major inflows. Both increased amplitudes of sea level variations in the Kattegat and decreased freshwater supply to the Baltic Sea substantially increase the magnitude of the inflows. It is shown that deep-water renewal in the Baltic Sea is obstructed during years with high freshwater supply even if the sea level forcing is favorable to a major inflow.     

Sinkhole formation and subsidence along the Dead Sea coast,Israel

More than 4,000 sinkholes have formed since the 1980s within a 60-km-long and 1-km-wide strip along the western coast of the Dead Sea (DS) in Israel. Their formation rate accelerated in recent years to >400 sinkholes per year. They cluster mostly in specific sites up to 1,000 m long and 200 m wide, which align parallel to the general direction of the fault systems associated with the DS Rift. The abrupt appearance of the sinkholes reflects changes to the groundwater regime around the shrinking DS. The eastward retreat of the shoreline and the lake-level drop (1 m/year in recent years) cause an eastward and downward migration of the fresh/saline groundwater interface. Consequently, a subsurface salt layer, which was previously enveloped by saline groundwater, is gradually being invaded and submerged by relatively fresh groundwater, and cavities form due to the rapid dissolution of the salt. Collapse of the overlying sediments into these cavities results in sinkholes at the surface. An association between sinkhole sites and land subsidence is revealed by interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) measurements. On a broad scale (hundreds of meters), subsidence occurs due to compaction of fine-grained sediments as groundwater levels decline along the retreating DS shoreline. At smaller scales (tens of meters), subsidence appears above subsurface cavities in association with the sinkholes, serving in many cases as sinkhole precursors, a few weeks to more than a year before their actual appearance at the surface. This paper overviews the processes of sinkhole formation and their relation to land subsidence.     

Magnetic and Gravity Investigations of Lisan Peninsula-Dead Sea(Jordan)

The Lisan Peninsula is located within the Dead Sea basin which represents the plate boundary between African and Arabian plates. This basin constitutes a good example of a pull-apart basin because of its large dimensions, its structural simplicity and its active subsidence . The gravity data reveal that the Dead Sea basin can be divided into segments, each of them about 30 km long in N-S direction , where the Lisan Peninsula represents the deepest one (9 km thick Pleistocene sediments ), overlying about 6 km thick Mesozoic sediments . In addition , 20 km of extension was predicted along the Dead Sea basin, which indicates that the Dead Sea basin should be about 3.3 Ma in age . Furthermore, the Precambrian basement under the Lisan area is characterized by high susceptibility contrast that is related to continuous tectonic activity in the region.     

Tectonic evolution of the Qumran Basin from high-resolution 3.5-kHz seismic profiles and its implication for the evolution of the northern Dead Sea Basin

The Dead Sea Basin is a morphotectonic depression along the Dead Sea Transform. Its structure can be described as a deep rhomb-graben (pull-apart) flanked by two block-faulted marginal zones. We have studied the recent tectonic structure of the northwestern margin of the Dead Sea Basin in the area where the northern strike-slip master fault enters the basin and approaches the western marginal zone (Western Boundary Fault). For this purpose, we have analyzed 3.5-kHz seismic reflection profiles obtained from the northwestern corner of the Dead Sea. The seismic profiles give insight into the recent tectonic deformation of the northwestern margin of the Dead Sea Basin. A series of 11 seismic profiles are presented and described. Although several deformation features can be explained in terms of gravity tectonics, it is suggested that the occurrence of strike-slip in this part of the Dead Sea Basin is most likely. Seismic sections reveal a narrow zone of intensely deformed strata. This zone gradually merges into a zone marked by a newly discovered tectonic depression, the Qumran Basin. It is speculated that both structural zones originate from strike-slip along right-bending faults that splay-off from the Jordan Fault, the strike-slip master fault that delimits the active Dead Sea rhomb-graben on the west. Fault interaction between the strike-slip master fault and the normal faults bounding the transform valley seems the most plausible explanation for the origin of the right-bending splays. We suggest that the observed southward widening of the Dead Sea Basin possibly results from the successive formation of secondary right-bending splays to the north, as the active depocenter of the Dead Sea Basin migrates northward with time.     

Three-dimensional configuration and dynamics of the fresh–saline water interface near two saline lakes with different levels (Middle East)

A typical fresh–saline water interface in a coastal aquifer is characterized by saline-water circulation below the interface and freshwater flow above. Both flows are perpendicular to the shoreline. The flow pattern near two separated saline lakes is more complicated. For example, in the Middle East, the Dead Sea northern basin and the evaporation ponds of the Dead Sea Works are adjacent to each other but separated. The northern basin level is dropping by 1.1 m/year and the evaporation ponds’ levels are increasing by 0.2 m/year. The fresh–saline water interface in such situation is numerically simulated. Streamlines parallel or semiparallel to the shoreline are significant. Moreover, the fresh–saline water interface intrudes landward adjacent to the higher saline lake and is pushed lakeward adjacent to the lower saline lake. The simulation results support field observations showing that the interface migrates vertically at a faster rate relative to the changes in the water table and the lake levels.