The Dead Sea: you cannot sink even if you can't swim
Nearly ten times saltier than the ocean — buoyant enough to float while reading a newspaper.
1The Dead Sea is about 34% salt — nearly ten times saltier than the ocean (about 3.5%). Dissolved salt makes the water denser than the human body, so the buoyancy is extraordinary: floating on your back while reading a newspaper is the classic Dead Sea pose.
2You can test the same principle at home: an egg sinks in fresh water, but as you stir in enough salt, the water becomes dense enough to float it. The saltier the water, the more it can hold up.
3It is called the Dead Sea because fish and shrimp cannot survive the salinity — but its real crisis today is water loss: the water level has been dropping year after year, and the lake is shrinking.
More salt, denser water, more buoyancy — that is the whole secret of the Dead Sea.