死海将死，约以合力相救

峰会期间，最振奋人心的事情，是约旦和以色列两国宣布将合作铺设管道，从红海引水注入死海，拯救濒临“死亡”的死海。死海是地球表面最低的地方，其实并不是海，而是绵延９０公里的内陆河。死海除了少数微生物，没有其他生物能生长，确是死气沉沉。但却有成千上万的游客泡在水中，还沉不下去。死海的水对风湿病和皮肤病有着特殊的疗效。死海是约以两国的摇钱树，每年的旅游收入就是几亿美元。随着约以两国人口的增长和工业发展，流向死海的河流河水被分流、截流用于饮用及工业用水。中东原本少雨缺水，持续干旱，加上两国企业不断开采磷酸…     

Changes in quality of groundwater with seasonal fluctuations： an example from Ghor Sail area, southern Dead Sea coastal aquifers, Jordan

The demand for water resources in the area south of the Dead Sea due to continued development, especially at the Arab Potash Company （APC） for production and domestic purposes necessitates that water quality in the area be monitored and evaluated based on the local geology and hydrogeology. The objective of this paper is to monitor seasonal fluctuations of groundwater and to determine how fluctuation in the water levels will affect the groundwater quality. Groundwater levels were found to be influenced by rainfall and pumping of water from the wells for domestic and industrial use. Twenty water samples were collected from different wells and analyzed for major chemical constituents both in pre- and post-seasons to determine the quality variation. Chemical constituents are significantly increased after post-season recharge. According to the overall assessment of the area, water quality was found to be useful for drinking, irrigation and industry.     

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon in rain and street runoff in Amman, Jordan

Concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons(PAHs) were determined in the rain and street runoff samples from two sites in the vicinity of Amman City during the pluvial period 1999--2000. The results showed that elevated levels of PAHs were detected in the city center(site 1 ) than the residential area( site 2) and that the levels were higher in street runoff than rain samples of the same sites. The highest concentration of PAHs in both street runoff and rain samples were observed in the first rainy month( November 1999) which indicated a wash out effect of PAHs originating from vehicular emission accumulated during the long dry summer season before sampling. Within the investigated cold winter seasons, fluctuations in PAHs concentration were observed. The variation was attributed to the fossil combustion for heating purposes and to intervals between rainfalls: as the longer the intervals between rains were, the higher the PAH concentration were. Removal of PAHs from the atmosphere through precipitation over the investigated period varied with time and places depending on the amount of rainfall where higher rainfall removed higher amount of PAHs from the almosphere. The amount of PAHs washed out through precipitation was estimated to be around 14.8 mg/m^2 and 21.1 mg/m^2 for sites 1 and 2 respectively.