Christy Carlson, age 12, of Salt Lake City, Utah, fop his question:

Is the Dead Sea below sea level?

This lifeless ditch of inland water lies in a long, deep geographical trough in the earth's crust. To the west, the high plateau rises to 3,000 feet above sea level and the Plain of Moab to the east rises above sea level to 4,400 feet. But the lava and sulfur¬-encrusted rocks that line the shores of the Dead Sea are much lower. The surface of the Dead Sea itself is 1,286 feet below normal sea level. The water in the center of the salty ditch dips down to a depth of 1,311 feet below the surface.

Every day, the Jordan and other rivers empty almost five million tons of fresh water into the Dead Sea. But the basin has no outlet to the ocean and an equal amount of water evaporates from the surface. The level of the inland sea remains fairly constant. But every day's evaporation adds to the proportion of the salty chemicals in its water. About 24 per cent of the mixture is dissolved chemicals and the Dead Sea is the saltiest body of water in the world.