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f Geophysical Assessment of Sinkhole Hazard Evaluation at Ghor Haditha (Dead Sea, Jordan)
- Publisher: European Association of Geoscientists & Engineers
- Source: Conference Proceedings, EAGE Workshop on Dead Sea Sinkholes – Causes, Effects and Solutions, Sep 2012, cp-310-00007
- ISBN: 978-94-6282-055-5
Abstract
For essentially the last 30 year the water level of the Dead Sea has highly dropped. One of the major associated facts is sinkhole occurrences along the shoreline both in Jordan and Israel. As the principal invoked mechanism, many studies have concluded that sinkhole formation results from the dissolution of a previously immersed salt layer, progressively in contact with fresh to brackish water. In Jordan, the triggering of this phenomenon could also be the result of particular tectonic settings, associated with the Jordan-Dead Sea transform fault system. At Ghor Haditha (south–est Jordan), the consequences have been dramatic for farmers with the shrinking of temporary available lands and industry with the closing of at least one factory. The shallow material in this area is heterogeneous and composed of intercalated sand and clay layers of alluvial-colluvial origin, over a salt substratum, whose precise depth and thickness are yet partially hypothesized.