Design of an Airborne EM Survey over the Dead Sea

Sinkholes along the shores of the Dead Sea have been known since the 1960’s. Geophysical research indicates two major groups of sinkholes – those close to the edge of an evaporate layer and those that form away from a dissolution cavern. To date, no comprehensive geophysical survey of the Dead Sea has been performed. Airborne electromagnetic surveys can map the hydrogeology of the area surveyed including stratigraphy with unknown subsurface faults, the fresh water-salt water interface, and karstic cavities and existing and incipient sinkholes. Interpreted depth sections range from tens of meters to 100 m to 200 m or more in depth with the specific depth of investigation depending on the geophysical instrumentation used and how deep the very conductive Dead Sea water zone is. Design of an AEM survey over the Dead Sea includes a time-domain system flying with the sensor at 30 m above the ground surface with flight lines sub-perpendicular to known fault structures in the Dead Sea with line separations from 50 (detect sinkholes) to 200 (regional mapping) meters. Follow-up ground-based geophysical surveys would be conducted on both the Israeli and Jordanian sides of the Dead Sea by teams from those countries.