Hydroclimatic Controls on Salt Fluxes and Halite Deposition in the Dead Sea and the Shaping of “Salt Giants”

<p>As the only deep hypersaline, halite&#8208;precipitating lake on Earth today, the Dead Sea is the<br>single modern analog for investigating the mechanisms by which large&#8208;scale and thick salt deposits,<br>known as &#8220;salt giants&#8221;, have accreted in the geological record. We directly measure the hydroclimatic forcing<br>and the physical limnologic processes leading to halite sedimentation, the vertical thermohaline structure,<br>and salt fluxes in the Dead Sea. We demonstrate that changes in these forcing lead to strong seasonal<br>and regional variations in the stratification stability ratio, triggering corresponding spatiotemporal<br>variations in thermohaline staircase formation and diapycnal salt flux, and finally control the thickness of<br>the halite layer deposited. The observed staircase formation is consistent with the mean&#8208;field &#947; instability,<br>causing layering in double&#8208;diffusive convection. We show that double diffusion and thermohaline staircase<br>formation drive the spatial variability of halite deposition in hypersaline water bodies, underlying and<br>shaping &#8220;salt giants&#8221; basin architecture.</p>