White smokers on the lake floor: Spectacular chimneys discovered in the Dead Sea

Nov 14, 2024

In an interdisciplinary research project coordinated by the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), researchers have discovered meter-high chimneys on the floor of the Dead Sea. These are formed by the spontaneous crystallization of minerals from groundwater with an extremely high salt content flowing up out of the lake floor, they report in the journal Science of the Total Environment.