Salt as Metaphor
There is a duality to salt, it is constructive and deconstructive. It preserves, flavors and holds value, but also kills, corrodes and dries.
Exploring salt on 3 scales - outside perception, individual makeup, and global impact - the qualities, structure and influence of salt will be analyzed.
Image: "Ever Wonder How Sea Salt is Made?" National Geographic
Image: "Ever Wonder How Sea Salt is Made?" National Geographic
Image: "Ever Wonder How Sea Salt is Made?" National Geographic
Image: "Ever Wonder How Sea Salt is Made?" National Geographic
Salt in the Bible
How is salt perceived? An outsider view.
In ancient times, salt was a necessity of life. Many cultures utilized salt as a unit of exchange, for preservation, disinfectant and flavoring.
The high value of salt is recognized in the Bible as it is mentioned over 40 times throughout. As a symbol, the Bible interprets salt as a covenant, as purity, new beginnings, nourishment and friendship.
Salts duality is addressed. Often playing contradictory roles throughout the Bible, salt is also referred to as an agent that kills and prevents growth.
“You shall season all your grain offerings with salt.” You shall not let the salt of your covenant with your God be missing from your grain offering; with all your offerings you shall offer salt.”
Leviticus 2:13
Image: “Sea Salt” cargill.com
Salt is pure, a means of preservation and a great expense. Salt also speaks of deep relationships and loyalty. In ancient customs, friendship was established through the eating of salt. Salt is lasting and persistent.
You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.”
Matthew 5:13
Image: “Salt Preservation” cointalk.com
Salt as a way of preservation, flavor and value. Without salt, bacteria and disease would persist. If the means of preservation no longer worker, than there is no value.
Genesis 19 describes the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah as God rains down sulfur on them. “But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.”
Genesis 19:26
Image: “Dead Sea Salt Formations” Melania Lidman, Times of Israel
Symbolizing destruction, death and punishment. High concentrations of salt are found in Israel and the surrounding region such as the Dead Sea. These areas are recognized as barren wastelands where nothing grows. In the Bible, serving as a reminder to not turn away from God.
Salt Experiment: Dissolving and Recrystallization
How is salt transformed? An impact on the individual level.
Sea salt is almost entirely found in the Mediterranean and produced in salt flats by ancient, skilled techniques, tradition and maintenance. Naturally produced, salt flats dry up in the sun and wind are leave behind salt crystals.
At an atomic level, salt is composed of sodium and chloride ions which are evenly distributed around each other in space. Strong ionic bonds between the ions create an orderly, stable structure. This structure is known as a crystal lattice.
Conducting a salt experiment, salt was dissolved in water and left out to evaporate. Since salt is only dissolved in water and not chemically bonded, as the water evaporates, salt is left behind - thus recrystallizing as the lattice structures are combined.
Image: “Lattice Structure of Salt” Kahn Academy
The Dead Sea
What impact does salt have on the surrounding environment? Salt’s impact on global scale.
The epitome of salts significance in the Bible. At the lowest point on Earth, bordering Israel, the West Bank and Jordan, the Dead Sea is nearly 10 times as salty as the ocean. Biblically, the Dead Sea served as a place of refuge.
The salinity of the Dead Sea makes it barren, a place where animals from fish to aquatic plants cannot flourish.
This is a much larger scale of the salt dissolving and recrystallizing from the “salt experiment.” Salt formations develop after intense evaporation as the molecules form lattice structures. The salt crystals begin growing upward and eventually reach the surface where other crystals adhere and form a cap. The formations are made from concentric rings of small rectangular crystals. Salt functionality and formation in the Dead Sea has provided insight into the massive salt deposits formed globally in Earth’s geological past.
Image: "Dead Sea Aerial Shot" earthobservatory.nasa.gov
Image: "Salt Formations" deadsealand.org
Image: "Concentric Salt Formations" Andrew Shiva
A phenomena of salt crystals “snowing” through the dead sea and piling up on the deepest parts of the lakebed has been recorded and explained through a motion now called “salt fingers.”
Theoretically, salt falling to the bottom of the sea is in opposition to the laws of physics which would anticipate salt floating upward.
During the summer, the heat divides the Dead Sea into two layers: a warmer top layer and a cooler below. Since the top layer is warmer and less dense, the two layers do not mix. “Snow salt” originates from the top layer. “Salt fingers” explain how the salt from the top layer moves to the cooler bottom layer. The initial fingers are small and made by tiny disturbances to the top layer of water causing tiny amounts of warm water to interact with the below cooler water - thus causing the warm water to quickly cool, pushing salt out and creating crystals which flow downward.
The salt fingers quickly interact and form larger structures of water movement, generating more salt crystal formation. This leads to the buildup of salt layers ion the Dead Sea’s floor and also explains past formations of salt deposits globally.
Video: “A Simulation of Salt Fingers in the Dead Sea” AGU
Image: “Water Receding” Noam Bedein
Image: “Sinkhole” Kan TV Screenshot
Image: “Sinkhole” Tony Dolce and Abdeljabbar Zaytoon
The Dead Sea is a fragile system. Anthropogenic activities have led to a massive decrease in water level, leaving behind a layer of dry salt. This decrease in sea level has allowed fresh ground water to penetrate the system, dissolving the salt layer. As the salt layer dissolves, an underground cavity is formed, eventually caving in and forming sinkholes.
Image: “Sinkhole Formations” Gil Cohen-Magen
Image: "Dead Sea Salt Formation" Joseph Tenne
Image: "Colors within Salt Formations" Baz Ratner/Reuters
Image: "Color within Sinkholes" Baz Ratner / Reuters
Image: "Concentric Salt Formations" Baz Ratner / Reuters
