Kinneret

Tens of millions of years ago, a unique geological phenomenon occurred in nature, as a result of which the earth’s crust unfolded over a distance of 6.5 thousand km and a crack formed, called the Great Syrian-African Fault. Part of it is located on our territory. The fault formed a number of reservoirs with unique qualities: the Jordan River, Kinneret Lake and the Dead Sea. Now we will talk about Kinneret. The reservoir is located in the northern part of the Syrian-African Fault, about 209 meters below sea level. Its length, from North to South, is 22 kilometers; width, from East to West, 14 kilometers; area – 170 square meters km, and the greatest depth is 43 meters. The volume of water in the lake is 4 billion cubic meters. Features of the subtropical climate of this area create a peculiar temperature regime in the lake. From about mid-May to the end of December, Kinneret’s waters are clearly divided into two layers: a warm (from 22 to 30 degrees), a well-mixed upper layer (epilimnion) with a depth of 16 to 30 meters, and a deeper, cooler (from 13 to 16 degrees) deprived of oxygen (hypolimnion). In winter, this bilayer disappears and the water mass is completely mixed. Continue reading →