Surface Landforms of Mount Sedom Diapir, Dead Sea Basin, Israel

Mount Sedom diapir is one of the few places on Earth where rock-salt is exposed, due to extreme aridity. The relief and surface features of the diapir basically reflect its parent-rock geological structure, stratigraphy, and lithology on one hand, and recent erosion and dissolution on the other one. Major landforms include lines of sliding faults, dissolution furrows, dolines of dissolution and collapse origin, karstic shafts, and an irregular drainage system dominated by many blind valleys. The diapir rock-salt is covered by residual caprock, in turn partly overlain by less consolidated insoluble sediments. Gravels and terraces of abrasion of the regressing lake shore appear in places. Exposed salt outcrops are relatively rare and undergo rapid dissolution, demonstrated by karst features, from sharp rillenkarren to the largest salt caves known globally. The extreme solubility of the underlying salt influences the surface landscape by inducing high permeability, which promotes runoff to be swallowed into the underlying salt. The young relief and erodible sediments allow for various rock towers and inselbergs which remain standing after surrounding erosion took place.