Ralph Wells Jr., age 9, of Dodge City, Kan., for his question:

IS THE DEAD SEA SALTY?

The Dead Sea, which is located at the mouth of the River Jordan and forms part of the border between Israel and Jordan, is the saltiest body of water in the world. The Dead Sea is nine times as salty as the ocean.

The.Dead Sea lies at the bottom of the deepest break in the earth's crust, 1,299 feet below the level of the Mediterranean Sea.

In the Middle Ages, travelers said that no birds flew over the Dead Sea because the air there was poisonous. We know today that birds avoid the Dead Sea area because there are no fish in the water and very little plant life can grow nearby because of the saltiness of the water.

The Dead Sea is 50 miles long and 10 miles wide. At its greatest depth, the water is 1,297 feet deep. Although streams pour almost 5 million tons of water into the mead Sea daily, the fresh water evaporates in the extreme heat of the basin. About 24 percent of the Dead Sea is solid matter, mostly common salt.