dead sea is saltier than red sea.
which is saltier dead sea or red sea?
dead sea
the connection of the seas by canal was first suggested in the mid-19th century by british officers who were looking for ways to circumvent the french-built suez canal and had not realized that the level of the dead sea is much lower. later on, at the end of the 19th century, planners thought how to use the jordan river water for irrigation and to bring sea water to the dead sea to create energy from its position of -390 m below sea level. one of those planners was the zionist leader theodor herzl. the red sea-dead sea conduit was proposed at the end of the 1960s and was analysed as part of the peace process between israel and jordan. in the late 1990s a team headed by refael (rafi) benvenisti working with minister shimon peres as the minister of regional cooperation suggested to establish the stabilization of the dead sea water level ('saving the dead sea') as a major objective of the project. it suggested building the project in stages in order to test the mixing of the two seas water phasing the big investment associated with the project. the project was called "the peace conduit" and was proposed to be located on jordanian territory for financial and implementation reasons.
red sea–dead sea water conveyance
the opening of the suez canal in 1869 created the first salt-water passage between the mediterranean and red sea. the red sea is higher than the eastern mediterranean, so the canal functions as a tidal strait that pours red sea water into the mediterranean. the bitter lakes, which are hyper-saline natural lakes that form part of the canal, blocked the migration of red sea species into the mediterranean for many decades, but as the salinity of the lakes gradually equalised with that of the red sea, the barrier to migration was removed, and plants and animals from the red sea have begun to colonise the eastern mediterranean. the red sea is generally saltier and more nutrient-poor than the atlantic, so the red sea species have advantages over atlantic species in the salty and nutrient-poor eastern mediterranean. accordingly, red sea species invade the mediterranean biota, and not vice versa; this phenomenon is known as the lessepsian migration (after ferdinand de lesseps, the french engineer) or erythrean invasion. the construction of the aswan high dam across the nile river in the 1960s reduced the inflow of freshwater and nutrient-rich silt from the nile into the eastern mediterranean, making conditions there even more like the red sea and worsening the impact of the invasive species.
mediterranean sea