Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-14T22:20:19.317Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

I.—The Jordan-Arabah Depression and the Dead Sea

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

Israel C. Russell
Affiliation:
Of the United States Geological Survey (Appalachian Division of Geology), Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C., U.S.A.

Extract

The following account of the geology of the Dead Sea basin A. has been compiled from the observations of others, and I am especially indebted in this connection to H. J. Johnson, Geologist of the United States Expedition to the Dead Sea, to Professor Louis Lartet, Geologist of the Due de Luynes' Expedition to the same region, and to Prof. Edward Hull, F.R.S., Director of the Geological Survey of Ireland, who visited Arabia Petraaa and Palestine in 1883–84, under the auspices of the Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund. Besides these observers, who devoted thei attention specially to the geology of the regions traversed during their several expeditions, the writer is under obligations to the Ordnance Survey of Palestine, and to many observant travellers, including Condor, Fraas, Tristram, Wilson, and others, for many interesting details and attractive descriptions concerning the regions to which it is desired to direct the reader's attention.

Type
Original Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1888

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

page 337 note 1 This Expedition visited Palestine in 1848, under direction of Lieut. W. S. Lynch. Among its more important contributions to science was the measurement, by means of the spirit level, of the depression of the surface of the Dead Sea below the level of the Mediterranean, the exploration of the River Jordan from the Sea of Galilee to its mouth, and the determination, by sounding, of the depth of the Dead Sea. The results of this Expedition were published in Official Report of the United States Expedition to the Dead Sea and the River Jordan,” by Lynch, Lieut. P. W., U.S.N., Baltimore, 1852; 4to. pp. 1236, pl. 17Google Scholar, and a map. Also in Narrative of the United States Expedition to the Dead Sea,” by Lynch, F. W., U.S.N., Philadelphia, 1849;Google Scholar 8vo. pp. i–xx, 1–508, pl. 28, and two maps.

page 337 note 2 This Expedition, fitted out and directed by the Due de Luynes, visited Palestine and the adjacent regions in 1864; its scientific results include important contributions to geology and palæontology, and a study of the chemistry of the waters of the Dead Sea. Preliminary publications of the results of Louis Lartet's observations while connected with this Expedition, appeared in the “Annaies des Sciences Géologiques” for 1869 and 1872. The final report is: “Voyage d'Exploration à la Mer Morte,” par de Luynes, M. le Due, Tome Troisième, “Géologie” (Paris, 1877), 4to. pp. ivi, 1326, pl. 114.Google Scholar

page 337 note 3 The report of the geological observations made during this Expedition has recently appeared, and is an important and highly interesting contribution to geological science. Its title is: “Memoir on the Geology and Geography of Arabia Petræa, Palestine, and adjoining districts.” Published for the Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund, London [?], 1886. 4to. pp. i–viii, 1–145, pl. 3, and three maps. A narrative of this expedition by the same author, scarcely less important than the final report, is entitled: Mount Seir, Sinai, and Western Palestine, being a narrative of a scientific expedition,” 1883–84, London, 1885. 8vo. pp. i–vi, 1–227, pl. 1–13, and two maps.Google Scholar

page 340 note 1 Hull places it at the close of the Eocene. Geol. and Geog. of Arabia Petræa, Palestine, etc., p. 108.

page 340 note 2 Determined from the map accompanying the narrative of the U.S. Expedition. The mean depth of the Dead Sea as obtained from the same map is 500 feet.

page 343 note 1 The Topographic Features of Lake Shores,” by Gilbert, G. K., in Fifth Annual. Report of the U. S. Geological Survey, 1883–1884, Washington, 1885.Google Scholar