Throttling of freshwater inputs into the meromictic Dead Sea weakened the long-term stability of the water column. Between 1975 and 1978 successive deepenings of the pycnocline from 70 meters to beyond 200 meters were recorded. Complete overturn finally took place during the winter of 1978-1979. This unique process was accompanied by changes in the geochemistry of several components.

Halite crystals were observed, for the first time, on the surface of the central part of the Dead Sea on 6 February 1979. This precipitation is assumed to be the result of an increase in the salt concentration at the lake surface by evaporation and raises some questions on the degree of saturation of the Dead Sea with respect to halite, the mechanism of salt precipitation in lakes, and the relevancy of the salt precipitation to some physical problems.

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The use of several different concepts interchangeably as a measure of evaporation rate may result in up to 50% error in evaporation estimates.