The Age of the Dead SeaThere is a way of calculating the age of the Dead Sea. This interior lake contains concentrated solutions of salts. These salts flow into the sea with the waters of its tributaries. Thermal springs bring salt to the Sea of Galilee, and the Jordan carries them to the Dead Sea, which has no outlet. From the surface of the Dead Sea, in the deep hot rift, the water evaporates, leaving the salts behind. By calculating the amount of salts in the sea and the amount that reaches it annually by way of the Jordan and other streams, as well as from thermal springs on its shores, the approximate age of the Dead Sea can be determined. Such an attempt was partially made. The magnesium salts in the Jordan served as a basis for the calculation. It was reckoned that the present annual rate of influx of magnesium in the water of the Jordan alone, when related to the concentration of magnesium in the Dead Sea, should give a figure of approximately 50,000 years as the age of the sea.(1) The author of this estimate admitted that even this figure is probably too high; the salinity of the Jordan must have decreased with time, for the thermal sources carry more salt when they are young and their temperature is high.
by Immanuel Velikovsky
In the above calculation, it was estimated that the Jordan carries six million tons of water daily to the Dead Sea and that it deposits 181 million tons of magnesium annually. However, on an average day more than double that amount evaporates from the Dead Sea,(2) and its surface does not fall, other sources must be making up the difference.
The rivers Zerka (Callirhoe) and Arnon, which flow into the sea from the east, carry salt solutions from many springs. The shores of the Dead Sea abound in highly concentrated thermal springs which contain rich amounts of magnesium. These sources flow directly into the sea, bringing a richer influx of magnesium than the Jordan.(3) In addition there are, on the shores of the Dead Sea, abundant vestiges of thermal springs with rich sediments of salts that are inactive at present.(4) It is highly probable, too, that there are submarine sources in the Dead Sea which may provide magnesium, but they are indeterminable.(5)
When these factors are taken into consideration the age of the Dead Sea, computed on the basis of its magnesium content, must be drastically reduced.
A computation that takes, as its basis, the amount of sodium in the Jordan points to a recent date for the origin of the Dead Sea. The proportion of sodium to magnesium in the water of the Jordan is about 4:1; in the Dead Sea it is 1:2.(6) If the Jordan were the only source of the sodium for the Dead Sea the age of the Dead Sea would be only about 6,000 years. But the thermal sources on the western, eastern, and southern shores contain sodium too; so may the submarine sources, which cannot be evaluated. It is likely, therefore, that the sea has existed for only about four thousand years. When again the fact is taken into account that the thermal sources are usually more concentrated when they first break out and when they are at a higher temperature, it may well be asked why the age of this sea should not be reduced still more. It is probable that deeper levels of water have a greater salt concentration.(7)
Fifty thousand years as the age of the Dead Sea was an unexpectedly low estimate: the rift in which the Dead Sea is situated is considered to be the result of a catastrophe at the beginning of the first glacial period.(8) Now a simple reckoning shows that the saline sea with the Jordan has not existed longer than five thousand years
In fact from what the Bible says I think that when Lot first decided to live on the plains settling quite near Sodom and Gomorrah when he looked out over from what apparently was a higher vantage point all he could see was a plain that was as a garden.
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Gen 13:10 And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it [was] well watered every where, before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, [even] as the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar.
Gen 13:11 Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan; and Lot journeyed east: and they separated themselves the one from the other.
Gen 13:12 Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched [his] tent toward Sodom.
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It sounds like the river Jordon was there as the area is called the plain of Jordon but as far as the eye could see there was rich land as a garden with lots of water, probably irrigation.
Years later when Abraham fought a battle to get Lot back after Sodom was sacked (by that time Lot had moved directly into the city of Sodom maybe because whereas the land had been as a garden, pits of slime were surfacing) here is a description of the area, Siddim meaning field or plain:
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Gen 14:10 And the vale of Siddim [was full of] slimepits; and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, and fell there; and they that remained fled to the mountain.
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I have a feeling that these slimepits may have been a new occurrence cropping up all over. They may be the reason that Lot who was an agrarian ended up moving into the city of Sodom that according to The Bible he was vexed with and must of hated living there. Whatever was causing the slime to rapidly surface also ended up being used by The LORD in His providence to destroy the whole area, raining fire and brimstone down upon it.
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2Pe 2:7 And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked:
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Then there is the verse about the kings of the area being joined together in a vale which is said to be the salt sea. To me it seems that The Bible is saying that the vale of Siddim, valley of the plain, that the kings were joined together in had in the present time that this was written become the salt sea or what we know of as the Dead Sea which would make the Dead Sea not very old as your article has determined.
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Gen 14:3 All these were joined together in the vale of Siddim, which is the salt sea.
