Dead Sea Saves Boy

From Arutz Sheva:

A massive manhunt and rescue operation ended in joy around midnight between Thursday and Friday, after a missing child was found alive, floating in the Dead Sea. The high salt and mineral content of the water, while extremely dangerous to ingest, kept the child afloat.

I found this really interesting having been to the Dead Sea. What I found most perplexing when I was there was the effects of the sun. I spent two weeks working on an archaeological dig at Qumran. The first day I was there, I whipped out a big bottle of sun screen, as I knew I was going to be in the sun all day, protected only by a simple tent over the actual dig area. I was told right away to put it away, I wouldn't need it, and not to bother. Over the course of the two weeks, I never put sunscreen on, and I came home whiter than I was when I left. It turns out the extra 1300 feet of atmosphere (2000 actually, as I live at about 700 feet above sea level) was enough to virtually eliminate the effects of the sun.

Surely that also was a major help to this boy, as if he had been in the ocean I would assume the sun would have baked him pretty badly. Being that far below sea level, he was able to escape some harsh sun burn.