127. Can You Drown In The Dead Sea?

‘It is impossible to drown in the Dead Sea’, ‘No-one has ever drowned in the Dead Sea’ These are the words spoken by tens of thousands of people. Even ABC News, a fairly large news network in American, has published an article talking about the salty bowl of water. How cool, the perfect bathing spot. Well it would be, were it not for that they are all wrong. At best they not thinking about every type of drowning. Although that still makes them wrong.

This misconception arises from the fact that the Dead Sea is one of the most bizarre lakes (yes, LAKE) in the world. It is also the deepest hypersaline (salty) lake in the world. 420m below sea level. As well as being low, lying on the Jordan-Israel border it is also salty to a near excessive degree. Around 9 times as salty as the oceans of the world. The whole lake is 33.7% salt. This does of course, have side-effect.

 

15. Luminescent Lakes

FACT: Lakes can glow. Let me elaborate.

The sequence leading to a brilliant blue glow such as this is a long one starting off with a sudden influx of nutrients. Thanks to the nutrients, algae (Specifically Synechococcus Algae) start growing thriving and reproducing in droves, forming bright green patches on the surface.

The next step is for Noctiluca bacteria to come and eat the delicious algae up. This forms rust-red patches on the surface, but the spectacle really occurs at night, for the bacteria are bio-luminescent (often referred to a phosphorescent), meaning that when disturbed by a rock or boat brilliant flashes of blue appear, such as in the accompanying image. In fact all of the plants in the water glow blue at night and anyone who takes a dip in these lakes comes out glowing like radioactive waste.

Fortunately it’s harmless.