Understanding how these salt deposits form could help scientists better understand how arid coastlines will react to sea level change. Tolkien, but in geology, they are very real, large-scale salt deposits within the Earth. This backdrop—in addition to other behaviors, such as internal currents and surface waves—is slowly forming salt giants, strangely mimicking the geologic past of a nearby aquatic neighbor. During the time, similar to today’s Dead Sea, the Mediterranean was cut off from water inflow from the North Atlantic and eventually dried up. The Dead Sea is alive and well when it comes to scientific exploration.