Dead Sea receding

An aerial picture taken on August 15 shows patterns formed by crystalized minerals and sinkholes on the surface of a dried-up Dead Sea area which exposed and created a salt plain, near the southern Israeli Neve Zohar Resort. The Dead Sea has lost a third of its surface area since 1960 with the blue water receding about a meter every year, leaving behind a lunar landscape whitened by salt and perforated with gaping holes.