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Floating high in highly saline water

This picture shows students from Idaho enjoying the unique experience of "floating high" in the Dead Sea in the Middle East. Notice how they seem to be sitting up as if in a chair...and the chair is the highly-saline water, in this case. The Dead Sea is extremely saline, due to the fact that the water body does not have an outflow point, so the salt that washes in from the surrounding watershed concentrates over time. And salt water is more dense than fresh water (and here, more dense than sea water), thus allowing these students to learn something about density and water.

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Students from Idaho enjoying the unique experience of floating in the extremely dense and salty water of the Dead Sea in the Middle East.

Credit: U.S. Dept. of State

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Page Last Modified: Friday, 02-Dec-2016 12:51:38 EST