In 2016, researchers proposed that salt fingers could send crystals to the Dead Sea floor. 3 years later, a 2019 study backed the theory, showing why the lakebed gains about 10 centimeters of salt yearly

The Dead Sea has a strange problem. As its water becomes increasingly salty, crystals are falling from the surface and collecting on the bottom, forming a layer that grows by about 10 centimeters every year. Scientists first noticed this salt “snow” in 1979, but the process was difficult to explain. Now, research published in Water Resources Research provides evidence for how tiny movements in the lake can send salt downward.

The report is based on a research paper: Raphael Ouillon et al., “Halite Precipitation From Double‐Diffusive Salt Fingers in the Dead Sea: Numerical Simulations,” Water Resources Research (2019), DOI: 10.1029/2019WR024818 .