The most famous salt lake in the world is the Dead Sea, in the Middle Eart. Water is lost into the air because of the heat of the sun, and the salt stays in the lake. It is also very lowlying, at around 395 metres below sea level. However, it is not the saltiest lake in the world. The Great Salt Lake in the USA, with 270 parts of salt per thousand, is even saltier.
The water of the Dead Sea contains about 250 parts of salt to every thousand parts of water, or 25% by weight. It is so salty that it is difficult to swim or dive, as your body floats on the surface. What has made this lake so salty? The minerals are partly supplied by hundreds of natural springs which flow into the Dead Sea, and partly by the River Jordan. It is called the Dead Sea because very few things can live in such salty water. There is very little rain here, merely 60mm in a year on average. The minerals stay in the lake, because there is no river flowing out of the lake.
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此文描述了世界两大盐湖形成的原因，以及盐湖中所含的成份，是一篇非常好的背景材料，可供读者在写有关文章时引用。
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世界上的咸水湖
世界上最有名的咸水湖是中东的死海。由于太阳酷热，水变成了水蒸汽，而盐分仍留在湖中。这里的地势也很低，约低于海平面395米。然而死海并不是世界上最咸的`咸水湖。美国大盐湖的水还要咸一些，每千份水中含有270份盐。
死海中的水每千份水里含有250份盐，或者说按重量计占25％。湖水太咸了，很难游泳或潜水，因为你的身体会浮在水面上。是什么东西使得湖水这样咸呢?是各种矿物质。它的部分来自众多的流入死海的天然泉水，部分来自约旦河。这个咸水湖之所以称作死海，是因为在这样咸的水中几乎没有什么东西能够生存。这儿雨水极少，平均每年只有60毫米。因为湖水不能通过江河流出去，所以矿物质就沉积在湖中了。
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