Page 32 - ARUBA TODAY

A32 FEATURE
Friday 29 March 2019
Israeli researchers say Sodom salt cave is world's longest

By ILAN BEN ZION wood fragments found
Associated Press inside the cave have
MOUNT SODOM, ISRAEL helped date its formation
(AP) — Israeli researchers to around 7,000 years ago,
said Thursday they have making it extremely young
surveyed what they now by speleological standards.
believe to be the world's "The reason why it's so
longest salt cave, a net- young is because it's made
work of twisting passage- of salt," Frumkin explained.
ways at the southern tip of "Limestone caves are much
the Dead Sea. slower to form. They are
A recently completed sur- usually much older. But this
vey of the Malham Cave one is developing very fast
determined the labyrin- so it's one of the youngest
thine cavern stretches caves in the world."
more than 10 kilometers (6 Frumkin said that studying
miles) in length. That puts the cave's formation has
it well ahead of Iran's Na- provided researchers with
makdan Cave, previously information about the cli-
thought to be the longest mate of the region over
salt cave. the past 7,000 years, and
The survey was conducted how that has affected the
by the Hebrew University of This Wednesday, March 27, 2019 photo, shows the entrance of the Malham Cave at the Dead Sea emergence of civilization.
Jerusalem and a collection in Israel. Jericho, one of world's first
of Israeli, Bulgarian and in- Associated Press cities and an epicenter for
ternational volunteers. the development of agri-
Boaz Langford, a research- erally decided by consen- The Dead Sea and Mount days measuring and map- culture, is around 80 kilo-
er at the university's Caves sus among cave research- Sodom were formed by ping the cavern's recesses. meters (50 miles) north of
Research Center, and An- ers after an underground tectonic activity, the shift- "It's above and beyond the Malham Cave.
toniya Vlaykova, a Bulgar- chamber is mapped and ing of the Earth's plates at what we expected," he "Because the salt is so sol-
ian cave explorer from the published. the northern end of the said. uble, that means that ev-
European Speleological Namakdan, which is about 6,000-kilometer (4,000- Efraim Cohen, one of the ery change in the climate
Federation, headed the 6 kilometers (4 miles) in mile) Afro-Arabian Rift Val- Hebrew University cave leaves its mark in the cave,"
expedition. length, was identified as ley. Over millions of years, explorers, described the Frumkin said. "If there is
"What's unique about this the longest salt cave after successive flooding of the process of locating the more water, more rainfall,
cave, as opposed to other a study by Czech and Ira- deep depression lay down cave's entrances from the the cave is enlarged, and
salt caves in the world, is nian scientists in 2006. thick layers of salt. surface, rappelling down Dead Sea level changes,
that it's the longest in the Salt caves are unusual and "The salt layers are into surface shafts, squeez- and this makes a huge dif-
world," Langford said, rest- rare geological features. squeezed out from the sub- ing through tight passages, ference in the morphology
ing in a chamber of the Because salt is highly water surface, where they are and measuring each of of the cave."
cave dubbed the "Wed- soluble, large salt depos- deposited a few kilometers the cavern's serpentine Although the scientists
ding Hall" for its salt stalac- its do not normally survive underground, and while branches with lasers. have completed their
tites. long on the surface. Only being squeezed out they Despite the difficult envi- study, there is still more of
Langford and Vlaykova a handful of salt caves form a mountain, which is ronment, he said the cave's the cave that is undiscov-
said they plan to pub- are larger than a kilometer rising still today, at a rate of splendor makes it worth it. ered, he said.
lish the complete map of (half a mile) in length. Salt about one centimeter per "All the stalagmites and sta- "There are some more
the cave in a professional caves tend to only exist in year," said Amos Frumkin, a lactites, their beauty, their parts, especially upper lev-
publication in the coming highly arid regions, like the Hebrew University geologist color — they're really white, els, which have not been
months. area around the Dead Sea, who has studied the cave they're shining, they're surveyed yet because they
There is no official record for which is located at the low- for decades. amazing," Cohen said. are difficult to reach," Frum-
the longest salt cave, and est point on earth and is too The Malham Cave's main Radiocarbon dating of kin said.q
such designations are gen- salty to support animal life. outlet yawns not far from a
salt pillar named "Lot's wife,"
after the biblical character
who was petrified for look-
ing back at the destruction
of the cities of Sodom and
Gomorrah. On the moun-
tainside above, Langford,
Vlaykova and their col-
leagues have identified at
least 19 openings where
seasonal floods have per-
colated through Mount So-
dom's rock salt to form the
cave.
In this Wednesday, March 27, 2019 photo, Yoav Negev, and Yoav Negev, founder of the In this Wednesday, March 27, 2019 photo, Yoav Negev, and
Boaz Langford, researchers at the Israel Cave Research Center Israeli Cave Explorers Club, Boaz Langford, researchers at the Israel Cave Research Center
of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, use their torch light to said that over two years, his of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, examine salt stalactites
examine salt stalactites hanging from the ceiling in the Malham group and a total of 80 vol- hanging from the ceiling in the Malham Cave at the Dead Sea
Cave at the Dead Sea in Israel. unteers from nine countries in Israel.
Associated Press spent around 1,500 work- Associated Press