Experts found traces of erosion.
The study was conducted in the framework of the project the Dead Sea Deep Drilling. Scientists have drilled into the sediments of the sea well with a depth of about 450 meters. Analysis of the extracted cores allowed the researchers to reconstruct the geological processes occurring in the last 220 million years.
Experts found traces of erosion that date back to the Neolithic revolution — the transition of primitive people who were hunting and gathering, to agriculture. According to scientists, the domesticated grazing animals and cutting down forests to create agricultural lands has resulted in extensive leaching of the soil and accelerate the deposition of silt in the Dead sea.
According to the researchers, the presence in samples of a large number of fine sand cannot be explained by erosion caused by natural causes only. Climatic conditions and tectonic processes of the Holocene, which has lasted for the last 12 thousand years, could not lead to such a result.
In the future, scientists expect to find traces of earthquakes in the extracted samples, because the seismic activity on the seabed should lead to offsets in sedimentary layers.
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