"Morphometric Characteristics of Sinkholes in Ghor AL-Haditha Area)") The Eastern Shore of the Dead Sea

ABSTRACT:

The aim of this study is to study the morphometric characteristics of the sinkholes, and its distribution in Ghor AL-Haditaha along the eastern shore of the Dead Sea.  Over the past years the coastal area of the declining Dead Sea has undergone a hundred of catastrophic collapse of sinkholes causing severe damage to the infrastructures and farms.  Sinkholes area subsidence features, the surface expression of these features is a results of water transporting residual material and soil through pathways established by the dissolution process related to the recession of the Dead Sea. Field work has been carried out in the study area, GPS survey was carried out to define the location of some of available sinkholes in the area, topographic, geological maps derived by digitizing method using ARC/VIEW3.2 software, morphometric analyses of 18 sinkholes showed that the largest is a much as 30m in diameter and 18m in deep, forming a close circular shape and vary in size resulted of sudden collapse. The sinkholes in the study caused serious damage to the infrastructures and farms. Thus the study recommended buffers around sinkholes, and land managers should be sensitive to the potential impact of any land development activities in the area.