Potential use of new geological findings for water exploitation in the lower Jordan Valley

The Lower Jordan River Valley is part of the Dead Sea Transform. From a geological point of view it comprises a plate boundary between the western African Plate and the southern Arabian Plate. From a political point of view the area acts as a 'triple junction' of three nations: Jordanian, Israeli and Palestinian. Along the mountainous belts the average precipitation is 500-600 mm/y, where 30-50 per cent of the water penetrates the subsurface to the local aquifers. At the Jordan Valley it drops down to less then 100 mm/y. The subsurface groundwater flow regime direction is from the mountainous belts calcareous karstic aquifer layers (The Judea Group) towards the Valley. The Judea Group aquifer at the Valley itself was considered deeply-seated and covered by a thick basin fill young formations and therefore unsuitable for groundwater exploitation. Newly seismic interpretation reveals several conspicuous structural features, which are of considerable hydrological importance for this arid zone: The Judea Group water bearing aquifer layers within the Valley is probably encountered at relatively shallow depth. This structure could encourage new ideas for water exploitation. Furthermore, the results of the integrated study suggest that several salt bodies are buried within the basin and are probably the source of local salination of fresh water.