Dead Sea salts and minerals are found in the Dead Sea, which is located at the undermost region of the Syrian-African Rift Valley, between Israel and Jordan. The Dead Sea is a lake and contains more saline than any other natural lake on Earth. Dead Sea salts and minerals contain sodium chloride, magnesium, iodine, calcium, potassium, bromide and sulfates.
Difficult Harvest
Water from the Dead Sea is mechanically pumped out and deposited in “pools,” where it naturally evaporates and the salt crystallizes out of it. Then the salt is hand-removed from the pond’s surface. This labor-intensive way of harvesting salt makes it a more expensive commodity. For centuries, it has been used in beauty products all over the world. There are stories about Cleopatra bathing in the Dead Sea, and today movie stars flock to the Dead Sea to cover themselves in the mineral-rich mud.
Features
The Dead Sea has distinctive characteristics that differentiate it from other bodies of water. The most significant feature of this water is the amount of saline it contains. There is so much saline in the Dead Sea that fish or any other type of marine life are non-existent. There are however, microscopic algae and organisms found living parasitically on the organic matter that flows from surrounding streams into the Dead Sea.
Significance
For thousands of years, people have been visiting this sea because of its purported health benefits. The Dead Sea contains 21 minerals, each of which is connected to some healing property. According to a study done in Israel at the Soroka Medical Center, patients who soaked in Dead Sea salt baths once a day experienced therapeutic effects that lasted one month. This study evaluated various minerals found in the Dead Sea salts that may have contributed to this effect--sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium.
Considerations
Dead Sea Salt and minerals are harvested not just for health or beauty purposes. A large portion of Israel’s economic benefits come from harvesting the salt and minerals to be used in many countries all over the world. The sea salt is processed in a lab in Israel to produce fertilizers. The process is complicated because potash or potassium chloride has to be extracted from the lake water and then transported to evaporation vessels, where the various salts are discharged. After mineral carnallite crystallizes from this process, the potash is culled and then more filtering is done before the fertilizer is developed.
History
Dead Sea salts and minerals have a venerable history. Many famous people over the centuries have extolled the benefits of soaking in Dead Sea salts or literally floating in the Dead Sea for general health and relaxation. It is said that Mark Antony, a Roman general, secured the region just for his wife, Cleopatra, an Egyptian queen who ruled between 48 and 31 BC. Because salt plays such an important role in health, beauty, industry and history, it appears as though Israel will continue studying its properties. Nonprofit organizations such as the Dead Sea Research Center in Israel give credence to this assumption.
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